The Harlem Hospital was opened as a holding center for patients awaiting treatment at Randalls Island, Ward Island, and Bellevue Hospital. The facilities were opened in 1897 in a Victorian Mansion at East 120th Street bordering the East River. The 54-bed facility, which was founded under the Department of Public Charities and Corrections, had to quickly expand to accommodate an influx of new African American residents to the neighborhood of Harlem in the early 20th century. By 1907, the Harlem Hospital moved to its current location pictured here, at Lenox Avenue between 136th and 137th Street.

In 1919, after years of struggle against discriminatory policies of medical bureaucracies, the Harlem Hospital hired its first African American physician. Dr. Louis T. Wright was the first Black physician to be hired in any city hospital. Wright was appointed a visiting-staff member at the hospital. Though this was the lowest possible position Dr. Wright could have been appointed, it opened the doors for six other African American physicians to be hired. As an act of protest, a group of white doctors and staff resigned. Discrimination only encouraged Wright to excel in his field. He later became the first Black Police Surgeon and the first Black recipient of the American College of Surgeons fellowship. Dr. Wright became the Director of the Department of Surgery at the Harlem Hospital in 1943.

Nor was Doctor Wright working alone! In 1923, the Hospital opened the Harlem Hospital School of Nursing to train Black nurses who were otherwise barred programs at all other city hospitals. This school closed in 1977, though it played a vital role in educating young Black medical professionals.

Under President FDR's New Deal, the Harlem Hospital commissioned over a dozen Black artists to paint murals inside the facilities. Many of the sketches submitted included images of Black people throughout history, which were approved by the WPA board but later rejected by the Hospital's leaders. Artists eventually proceeded to paint the murals, though some works were obscured in back hallways and other areas out of public view. Pictured here in Selma Day, one of the painters. Many of the murals have been preserved and are now featured on display in more public areas of the Hospital Center.

This page, from an issue of The People's Voice, includes a list of demands for the improvement of Harlem Hospital. The paper included the following statements: "The Negro nurses are Jim-crowed; that the department of surgery in particular needs a thorough overhauling; that the clinic is woefully understaffed; that no Negro is included on the staff of the medical section of the Office of Civilian Defence...that qualified Negro doctors are kept out of city hospitals; that white doctors of lesser qualifications are thrust upon Harlem Hospital, that voluntary hospitals surrounding the Harlem area send their own ambulances with accident cases past their doors, over to Harlem, rather than admit the Negro victims; AND THEN PEOPLE TALK ABOUT THE NEGRO'S HIGH DEATH RATE. Forced to live in a ghetto, victimized by exploitation, denied the most fundamental opportunities for living-with minimum needs inadequately met--WHAT MORE CAN BE EXPECTED?"

The Harlem Hospital saved the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on September 20th, 1958. The civil rights activist was stabbed at his own book signing at the Harlem location of Blumstein's, pictured here. Reportedly, the wound was so severe that "a sneeze could have killed him:" the letter opener which was lodged in Dr. King's chest had barely missed his aorta. A team of Surgeons, both Black and white, operated on King for over two hours, saving the young leader's life.

Despite the complaints made by the People's Voice in 1942, it took the Harlem Hospital forty years to have thorough audit. In the 1980s, the New York State Department of Health and Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) found numerous instances of patient harm, violations of the state hospital and Medicare standards, and "primarily in the areas of nursing care and the building's cleanliness and safety," including an unusually high death rate, reported in "Medicare Standards at Harlem Hospital." Beginning in 1987, the HCFA has regularly monitored the conditions of the hospital and noted great improvements in the facilities and care the hospital offers. This would not be the last of the hospital's troubles: after reducing the tax subsidy to public hospitals from 228 million dollars to just 60 million dollars in 1995, Mayor Rudy Giuliani tried to lay off around 1,500 members of the hospital's staff.

The Harlem Hospital, like other city hospitals, was in danger of being sold off to a private company due to its lack of profitability. The New York Times cites this period as the beginning of a "tough new world of health care," in which the money-making abilities of hospitals and healthcare centers were considered of higher importance to the quality of care they offered. Cuts to the hospital were viewed as the beginning of a diminishing quality in healthcare for the poor, yet "Giuliani wandered into a territory crowded with symbolism for black New Yorkers." Harlem residents, who still had a conscious memory of a 10-day sit-in after nearby Sydenham, pictured above, rallied hard in support of their beloved hospital. The Times reported that the Harlem Hospital was "an institution that serves as a primary healthcare provider for most of the area's residents," and a majority of the area's residents relied on the Harlem Hospital to meet all of their healthcare needs.

Since the late 90s, the hospital has expanded to include various state-of-the-art facilities, including an Ambulatory Care Pavilion, Neonatal ICU, and Magnetic Resonance Imaging Unit. Additionally, the Harlem Hospital has been an affiliate of Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons since 1962. According to the college, the partnership "has resulted in high-quality medical care for the community as well as an unparalleled learning experience for medical students." The Harlem Hospital, now called the Harlem Hospital Center, is one of the largest health centers in New York City and remains a proud signifier of Harlem's history.