A few years ago, I purchased a California and Western Medicine Journal, published in 1924. I was surprised to see that several of the structures in the journal had once been in San Francisco. Many of the ads also featured local medical supply businesses. The products shown are so antiquated by today’s standards, bordering on quackery.
This article and photo gallery is more about looking back at those traces of San Francisco’s medical history than about hospitals. As most know, a huge portion of the city was wiped out from the earthquake and subsequent fire in 1906. While not as devastating, we lost more structures when the 1989 quake hit, making it remarkable that some of these massive structures have survived to this day.
In addition to acts of nature, hospitals are often intentionally torn down when they no longer serve the population well. As science and medicine advances, so do the structures. Some of the institutions in the photo gallery no longer exist, while others no longer resemble the original buildings. One exception seems to be the building that stands at Page and Masonic Streets, in the Haight. It looks much like the image in the journal (see image number 5 in the gallery).
I’ve included the addresses of the businesses where I could, with a link to what’s currently there when possible. Sutter Street seemed to be medical row. That’s still evident in the famous art deco structure at 450 Sutter Street, home for many medical offices.
The journal also featured several ads for sanitariums and sanatoriums in California, with many of them down the Peninsula. I had to look up the difference between the two. Many served to treat tuberculosis and “mental and nervous disorders.”
sanitarium:
1. an institution for the preservation or recovery of health, especially for convalescence; health resort.
sanatorium:
1. a hospital for the treatment of chronic diseases, as tuberculosis or various nervous or mental disorders.
2. an institution for the medical care and recuperation of persons who are chronically ill
3. a health resort
There were a handful of hospitals that were not listed in the journal. Perhaps the journal only included only those who paid to be listed. I found some images from other sources for those. One was the Southern Pacific Hospital that was located at 333 Baker Street, in San Francisco’s Panhandle, which now provides senior housing. The others were SF General Hospital, Laguna Honda, Letterman in the Presidio, Fort Miley Veterans Hospital, Shriner’s Hospital of San Francisco and the hospital on Alcatraz Island.
Bob Bragman is a producer for sfgate.com. His writing reflects his love of the Bay Area, in addition to his passion for vintage pop culture, ephemera and vernacular photographs. To see more of his content, please click here.
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