The Western Dispensary for Women and Children, now defunct, was a Manhattan hospital incorporated in March 1869, located at 218 Ninth Avenue.[1][3][4] Unlike the government-funded Northwestern Dispensary,[5][6][7] this hospital had trouble meeting their financial obligations.[8][9]Abraham Jacobi, a co-founder of the hospital,[3] is regarded as the Father of American Pediatrics.[10]
Controversy
A portion of a large sum left by "an eccentric old maid" was directed by her will to Western Dispensary for Women and Children[11] and several other institutions,[12][13]
Some of her nieces and nephews contested the will. When Surrogate Court held hearings,[13] there was "a large attendance" of "the various charitable institutions which are beneficiaries."[14]
Notable people
Mary A. Brinkman, homeopathic physician appointed to the hospital
^Compare Sheet 9 from: Plan of New York City, from the Battery to Spuyten Duyvil Creek. (New York: Mathew Dripps, 1867) with Plate 11 from: Robinson, E. & Pidgeon, R. H. Robinson's Atlas of the City of New York. (New York: E. Robinson, 1885).
^regarding an attending physician, Anna Lukens: at some portions of the time paid the rent for this dispensary out of her own pocket in order to keep up the work.