Then: Niagara Falls General Hospital

Before the City of Niagara Falls incorporated in 1904, there was no hospital. Patients who required more care than their doctors could provide were transferred in horse-drawn ambulances or in trains to nearby cities for treatment.

By 1907, a 97-bed building had been constructed on the corner of Jepson Street and Fourth Avenue, The Niagara Falls General Hospital. It was heated by coal-fired boilers, and had an admission room, an emergency room, an operating room and a kitchen for food preparation. There was no isolation area for communicable diseases, but an "isolation tent" was set up outside on the grounds. With few automobiles on the road, there was no parking lot, but there were hitching posts and space for horse drawn vehicles, including ambulances.

When the hospital first opened, nurses were brought in from elsewhere, but in 1912 a nurses' training school was organized. All the nurses and students worked 12 hours a day, six days a week. Patients who could afford to pay did, and the rest of the funding was through government grants, including the city. There was no OHIP, but even through the depression, service was never refused to a patient in need.

More rooms were added over the decades, but the General just didn't have enough space. When the new Greater Niagara General Hospital opened in 1958, a police escort accompanied a convoy of ambulances and station wagons, transporting the last of the patients from the Niagara Falls General Hospital.

Now: Salvation Army Eventide Home

The old hospital building was purchased by the Salvation Army, renovated, and opened in 1960 as The Eventide Home.

Niagara Falls Public Library. 2017. Niagara Falls - Then & Now: A Photographic Journey Through The Years. Niagara Falls General Hospital/Salvation Army Eventide Home

Niagara Falls Then and Now
A collaborative project
Niagara Falls Museums - Niagara Falls Public Library - Dept. of Geography and Tourism Studies,Brock University.
Original newspaper series by Sherman Zavitz, Official Historian for the City of Niagara Falls from 1994 - 2019.

© 2020 All rights reserved
Copyright for all content remains with original creators.