Edgecombe Sanitarium was a private hospital run by African American doctors in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. It served patients "of considerable means" who did not want to be served at the primarily white staffed

Harlem Hospital Harlem Hospital Center, branded as NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem, is a 282-bed, public teaching hospital affiliated with Columbia University. It is located at 506 Lenox Avenue in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City and was founded on April 18, 1887. ...

. Godfrey Nurse was one of the doctors who founded the hospital. The hospital had twelve beds. It was started as the result of the Harlem Hospital having a primarily

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

staff. In 1925, the nearby Booker T. Washington Sanitarium was merged with Edgecombe. In 1929, Edgecombe had treated 249 patients. Through fundraising, the hospital installed an

x-ray machine An X-ray machine is a device that uses X-rays for a variety of applications including medicine, X-ray fluorescence, electronic assembly inspection, and measurement of material thickness in manufacturing operations. In medical applications, X-ra ...

Gerri Major Gerri Major (July 29, 1894 – August 17, 1984) was an American journalist, editor, newscaster, publicist, public health official, author and community leader. During World War I, she was a major in the American Red Cross. Thereafter, she becam ...

was part of its Woman's Auxiliary.

Notable patients

* Jean Carey Bond was born at the hospital. * Eloise Bibb Thompson died at the hospital in 1928. *

Rudolph Fisher Rudolph John Chauncey Fisher (May 9, 1897 – December 26, 1934) was an American physician, radiologist, novelist, short story writer, dramatist, musician, and orator. His father was John Wesley Fisher, a clergyman, his mother was Glendora Willia ...

died at the hospital in 1934.

References

External links

Receipt from the Edgecombe Sanitarium, February 18, 1931
from the W. E. B. Du Bois Papers at the

University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the Public university, public university system of the Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes six campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, University of Massachusetts Lowell ...

-Amherst archives Hospitals in Manhattan Harlem {{NewYork-hospital-stub