Crouse Hospital History

Cover Image:
Crouse Hospital History
Crouse-Irving Hospital Nursery - Image Source

Collection Facts

Extent:
161
Dates of Original:
c. 1890 - 2000

Historical Context

Crouse Hospital’s was founded in 1887 by a group of community-minded women from the Syracuse Women’s Hospital and Training School for Nurses. It was the only hospital in the area at the time that focused on the specific healthcare needs of women and children; still a strategic focus today in fulfillment of the hospital’s mission to provide the best in patient care and to promote community health. In 1902 its name changed to Syracuse Hospital for Women and Children and by 1908 the hospital began to admit men. In 1918, the name was changed to Syracuse Memorial Hospital to reflect its broader range of services. In 1929, the hospital moved to its present location on Irving Avenue. In 1946, after World War II and the establishment of a cooperative arrangement with Syracuse University’s School of Nursing, the Syracuse Memorial Hospital School of Nursing was dissolved.

Crouse-Irving Hospital, destined to merge with Syracuse Memorial, was founded by a group of physicians and investors under the leadership of Dr. William L. Wallace in 1912. In 1913 Crouse-Irving Hospital School of Nursing was founded. For many years, Syracuse Memorial Hospital and Crouse-Irving Hospital operated separately while being located across the street from each other. The two hospitals merged in 1968 into Crouse Irving Memorial Hospital. Crouse-Irving’s School of Nursing became the Crouse Irving Memorial Hospital School of Nursing at that time. Following the merger, plans were begun to expand and modernize the existing facilities. As part of the S.H.A.R.E. campaign to modernize healthcare facilities in Onondaga County, funds were raised to replace the deteriorating Crouse-Irving Hospital Building. In 1976, the Irving Unit (attached to the Memorial Unit, the former Syracuse memorial Hospital) was opened while the former Crouse-Irving Hospital was converted to an educational building for the hospital the School of Nursing, then demolished in 1991 when the present Harry and Lillian Marley Education Center opened. In June 1996, a new name was announced, changing Crouse Irving Memorial Hospital to Crouse Hospital. In 2015 the Crouse Hospital School of Nursing was renamed the Bill and Sandra Pomeroy College of Nursing at Crouse Hospital.

Scope of Collection

The Crouse Hospital History collection contains black & white and colored photographs of Crouse Hospital and the staff and students who resided there from the late nineteenth through twentieth centuries. These photographs include the development of the hospital, its change in exterior over various decades, its services to the Syracuse community, education of nurses, and trends in healthcare delivery.