Vassar Brothers Medical Center History

Established in 1884 on Henry Livingston farmland along the Hudson River, Vassar Brothers Hospital opened on April 11, 1887 and treated 80 patients in its first year. A training school for nurses was established in 1890, and a stone wall was erected around the perimeter of the 17 acres. Inside those walls and over more than a century of time was a constantly expanding cluster of buildings and additions which served to broaden the scope of treatments, surgeries and services offered to patients in the City of Poughkeepsie and surrounding communities.