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| EYE, EAR NOSE & THROAT Hospital |
Introduction Main Library Site | Eye, Ear Nose & Throat Hospital Pythian Temple | Duncan Plaza Charity Hospital | Rampart Street |
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| The Downtown/Lake corner was home to the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital from 1907 until its demolition in 1996. Founded in 1889 to provide health care to the poor of New Orleans, the Senses Hospital (as it was sometimes called) originally operated out of rented space on North Rampart Street. During 1903 and 1904, the institution’s Board of Trustees acquired most of the real estate in the square bounded by Tulane, Franklin, Cleveland, and Elk Place. Phase I of hospital construction resulted in a two-story clinic building along Tulane Avenue, while the hospital proper operated in the existing structures on Elk Place, including the corner with Tulane, until a new five-story addition went up in 1922. A third major building went up around the year 1950.
The Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital continued to operate on Tulane and Elk Place until 1988, when it moved into a new facility on Napoleon Avenue across from Southern Baptist Hospital. In the following year, an investor purchased the vacant downtown property at public auction. The old hospital sat empty until 1996 when it was demolished to make way for the Deming Pavilion, a residence for medical students at the adjacent Tulane Medical Center. That structure, with a Walgreen’s on the ground floor, continues in use today. |
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This page from the tax assessment record book for 1880 shows the owners of property and businesses in the square bounded by Basin, Franklin, Gasquet, and Common Streets. Two well-known madams, Kate Townsend and Fanny Hinckley (aka Fanny Sweet), owned lots on Basin Street and operated “furnished rooms,” as bordellos were often referred to. Miss C. Wallace also kept furnished rooms at the corner of Basin and Common -- a property owned by J. L. Tissot, one of the judges of Civil District Court in New Orleans.
Orleans Parish Board of Assessors, Tax Assessment Rolls, 1880, First Municipal District, Fifth Assessment District |
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The cover of the Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat Hospital’s 1907 Annual Report shows the new clinic building facing Tulane Avenue with the old nineteenth century structures still standing next door.
Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital, Annual Report, 1907 |
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Reproduction of the elevation plan for the 1922 addition to the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital.
Building Plans in the City Archives, Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital, Favrot and Livaudais, 1921, Sheet 6, #II-26 |
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The 1924 Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital Annual Report featured the new hospital building on its cover.
Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital, Annual Report, 1924 |
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The third major addition to the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital was the Isaac H. Stauffer Memorial which was completed in 1950. This four-story, $700,000 structure allowed the institution to add more beds as well as to improve its research facilities.
General Interest Collection -- Hospitals |
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View of the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital from the California Building across the street, ca. 1952.
Municipal Government Photograph Collection, |
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The Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital as seen from the Pythian Temple/Industries Building, ca. 1955.
Municipal Government Photograph Collection, |
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The Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital moved into new quarters on Napoleon Avenue in 1988 and the old facility was sold in the following year for $300,000. The buildings at Tulane and Elk Place sat vacant for eight years until their demolition in 1996. Though preservationists such as Diane Manget Gill feared that the vacant land would mar the CBD landscape for years, the Deming Pavilion was actually in the works before the end of the year. (Diane Manget Gill to Mayor Marc H. Morial, July 28, 1995)
Office of the Mayor. Records of the Executive Assistant for Intergovernmental Relations, 1994-1996, Box 4,Folder “Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital” |
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Charity Hospital | Rampart Street |
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