Early history Charity Hospital was founded on May 10, 1736, by a grant from Jean Louis, a French sailor and shipbuilder, who died in New Orleans the year before. His last
will and testament was to finance a hospital for the
indigent in the
colony of New Orleans from his estate. Charity Hospital was originally named the
Hospital of Saint John or '''L'Hôpital des Pauvres de la Charité''' (The Charity Hospital for the Poor). The first Charity Hospital was located on the intersection of Chartres Street and Bienville Street in what is now the
French Quarter. The hospital was founded 18 years after the city was founded by
France in 1718. It was the second oldest continuously operated public hospital in the United States. Only
Bellevue Hospital in
New York City is older, having been founded a month earlier, on March 31, 1736. This hospital came under the administration of the
Sisters of Charity in 1834, who would run the hospital for the next century. In that year Charity also began its long history as a teaching hospital with the founding of The Medical College of Louisiana by three American physicians new to the city: Dr. Thomas Hunt, of South Carolina, Dr. Warren Stone, of Vermont, and Dr. John Harrison, of Washington, D.C., using various locations including Charity Hospital which was "open every day for the attendance of the students". In 1843 the college petitioned the Legislature for land to build a medical school building with the provision that the faculty would care for the patients of Charity free of charge for 10 years, a tradition which continued into the 1960s. In 1847 the Legislature established the University of Louisiana, and the Medical College of Louisiana was assumed into the school, becoming the Medical Department of the University of Louisiana. The hospital in the 1850s was probably the largest hospital in the world, with 1,000 beds, 200 more than the eminent
Hotel Dieu in Paris. In 1884 Paul Tulane bequeathed the massive sum of $1.25 million dollars to establish the Tulane University of Louisiana, and the Medical Department of the University of Louisiana, until now state-supported, became part of the private Tulane University. In 1931 the Louisiana State University School of medicine was established on the grounds of the Charity complex along Tulane Avenue, on the opposite side from Tulane. When the sixth Charity was built in 1939, the new structure was in the shape of an H, modified to comply with the segregation laws of the time. Each wing belonged to Tulane or LSU's medical service. To divide incoming patients equally, patients with an even medical record number were assigned to one school, and those with an odd number to the other. During the
yellow fever epidemic of 1858, 2,727 patients were admitted and of them 1,382 died of the disease. Total patient admission that year was 11,337, being 9,135 males and 2,202 females.
Current building By the 20th century, the city of New Orleans was rapidly expanding, and the demand for indigent medical services again exceeded Charity Hospital capacity. A sixth hospital was built on Tulane Avenue in 1939. At the time it was the second-largest hospital in the United States, with 2,680 beds. The mechanical engineer
Karl von Terzaghi inspected the new structure and determined that it was sinking at a rate of per year. The building's cornerstone lists the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (later called the
Public Works Administration) as the building authority. The architects were
Weiss, Dreyfous & Seiferth, who were also responsible for the
Louisiana State Capitol in
Baton Rouge. The hospital features two stone
bas-reliefs and a cast-aluminum screen called
Louisiana at Work and Play, all by artist
Enrique Alférez. The
LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans (LSUHSC-NO) was built adjacent to Charity Hospital in 1931 under the aegis of Louisiana Governor
Huey Pierce Long. Serving one of the largest populations of uninsured citizens, Charity Hospital also boasted the No. 2 Level I Trauma Center in the nation, with the No. 1 rank belonging to Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. In 1968, the hospital lost a malpractice case before the U.S. Supreme Court. In
Louise Levy, Administratrix v. Louisiana through the Charity Hospital of Louisiana at New Orleans Board of Administrators, et al., the court ruled that a child born out of wedlock could not be prevented from suing on behalf of a deceased parent. The
Louisiana Department of Health and Human Resources (DHH) took control of Charity Hospital in 1970. The hospital was transferred to the
Louisiana Health Care Authority (LHCA) in 1991 and to the LSU System in 1997.
Hurricane Katrina Like its sister hospital,
University Hospital, Charity Hospital sustained severe flood damage during
Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The evacuation of patients from the flooded hospital made national headlines, where patients had to be ferried out through high floodwaters and then be picked up by helicopter at the roof of Tulane hospital, as toilets backed up, essential supplies dwindled, and temperatures rose above 100 degrees. There were reports of hand pumped ventilators being used to breathe for patients and personnel using IV fluids to feed each other after food ran out. The evacuation was also halted by reports of sniper fire. A doctor was quoted as saying the smell was, "so bad it had many of us gagging and some people even threw up." Despite the ordeal, only eight patients died, mostly ICU patients, with more deaths occurring at other hospitals across the city, such as Lindy Boggs Medical Center and Memorial Medical Center. RMJM Hillier determined the art deco building to be structurally sound—with its original design being architecturally exceptional and "ahead of its time." Rehabilitation into a 21st-century, state-of-the-art facility would be the fastest, most cost-effective way to return quality healthcare and a teaching hospital to New Orleans. This idea was scrubbed in favor of using
University Hospital as an interim hospital and building
University Medical Center New Orleans and a new
Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System Medical Center in the adjacent neighborhood of lower Mid-City. In August 2015, the LSU Health Sciences Center completed the new $1.1 billion medical center named University Medical Center New Orleans. The hospital consolidated the functions of both the already closed Charity Hospital and University Hospital. the organization that has owned the structure since the 2005 evacuation and subsequent closure of the hospital, approved a re-development project to turn the former hospital into a mix of homes, retail space and other facilities. The redevelopment project had been long-awaited by city leaders hoping to revitalize the former "booming" central business district that has been suffering since the closure of Charity and surrounding buildings due to Hurricane Katrina. The contract was awarded to a group called 1532 Tulane Partners, a joint venture between New Orleans–based CCNO and Israeli development company
El-Ad Group. Work was expected to begin on the giant building in Fall 2019 and construction was predicted to take three years. The redevelopment project was expected to cost $300 million that would have been partly funded by tax credits, and the building would not have been subject to property tax as the building will still be owned by LSU. The structure was projected to include about 390 residential units plus retail shops and restaurants. Tulane University was expected to serve as the main tenant of the building as they will use it for student housing and offices. == In popular culture ==