The Dunbar Hospital was the first hospital for the black community in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. It is located at 580 Frederick Street, and is currently the administrative headquarters of the Detroit Medical Society. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1979.

Building construction and description

The building housing the Dunbar Hospital was built in 1892 by the Guy W. Vinton Company as a home for real estate developerDunbar Hospital
from the National Park Service Charles W. Warren.
from the state of Michigan The home was constructed in a fashionable 19th century residential district. The structure is a three-story home of mixed

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

and Queen Anne style, ric J. Hill, John Gallagher, and the American Institute of Architects Detroit Chapter,''AIA Detroit: The American Institute of Architects Guide to Detroit Architecture,'' Wayne State University Press, 2002, , p. 182 built of red brick and rough-cut ashlar. The entrance is through a recessed, arched first-floor porch and the second story has a double-arch brick balcony. The roof is slate, with a bay-windowed gabled dormer surmounting the front façade.

Founding of the Dunbar Hospital

In 1894, Dr. James W. Ames, a graduate of both

Straight University Straight University, after 1915 Straight College, was a historically black college that operated between 1868 and 1934 in New Orleans, Louisiana. After struggling with financial difficulties, it was merged with New Orleans University to form ...

and

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

, arrived in Detroit after a stint of teaching in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

. He quickly became influential in both Detroit's white community and its then-small black community. Detroit's mayor at the time was

Hazen Pingree Hazen Stuart Pingree (August 30, 1840 – June 18, 1901) was a four-term Republican mayor of Detroit (1889–1897) and the 24th Governor of the U.S. State of Michigan (1897–1901). A Yankee who migrated from New England, he was a successful Rep ...

. During his subsequent re-election campaign, Pingree actively courted the black vote, in part by supporting Ames's bid for election to the Michigan state legislature.Vivian M. Baulch
"How Detroit got its first black hospital," ''The Detroit News,'' November 28, 1995. The nationally famous black poet

Paul Laurence Dunbar Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Dayton, Ohio, to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky before the American C ...

, popular in both the black and white community, visited Detroit and lent his voice to those supporting Pingree, penning the poem, "Vote for Pingree and Vote for Bread." Both Ames and Pingree won their respective elections, and Ames spent the next two years in the legislature. He was the last black elected until the 1920s. Two decades later, in the years following

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the black population of Detroit soared. In 1910, fewer than 6000 blacks called the city home; in 1917 more than 30,000 blacks lived in Detroit. The increase in black residents led to a crisis in health care. Hospitals were still segregated, and physicians like Ames were required to ask permission to admit black patients. Often black patients were simply denied care. The increase in the black population threatened to overwhelm the city's 30 black doctors. In 1918, Ames led the group of 30 black physicians to form the Allied Medical Society. The area around Frederick street was at the cusp of becoming the center of social and cultural life for Detroit's black community, and the AMS purchased the Warren home on Frederick They opened their own non-profit hospital in the building, the first in the city to serve the black community, as well as an associated nursing school. The hospital was named for the poet Dunbar, who had died in 1906. The hospital had 27 beds and an operating room."Black-Owned and Operated Hospitals in the Detroit Metropolitan Area during the 20th Century,"
University of Michigan Medical School, ''Winter Newsletter 1998''

Later history

In 1928, demand led Dunbar Hospital to move from its first home to a larger facility several blocks to the east. The facility was renamed Parkside Hospital, and continued in operation until 1962. Soon after Dunbar moved from its home on Frederick, Charles Diggs Sr., who was later the first African-American Democratic state senator, purchased the home. Diggs's son, Charles C. Diggs Jr., served in the Michigan State Senate from 1951 to 1954 and the U.S. House of Representatives from 1954 to 1980. In 1978, the Detroit Medical Society (the successor to the Allied Medical Society) purchased and restored the building. It now serves as their administrative headquarters and a museum.

References

{{authority control African-American history in Detroit Houses in Detroit Hospitals in Michigan Headquarters in the United States Houses completed in 1892 National Register of Historic Places in Detroit Hospital buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Historically black hospitals in the United States 1918 establishments in Michigan Hospitals established in 1918