Massachusetts General Hospital | |
Location | Fruit Street, Boston, Massachusetts |
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Coordinates | 42°21′48″N71°4′8″W / 42.36333°N 71.06889°W |
Area | 4 acres (1.6 ha) |
Built | 1818 |
Built by | Alexander Parris |
Architect | Charles Bulfinch |
Architectural style | Classical Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 70000682 [1] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | December 30, 1970 |
Designated NHL | December 30, 1970 |
The Bulfinch Building of the Massachusetts General Hospital is located on the hospital's main campus on Fruit Street in the West End of Boston, Massachusetts. It was designed by architect Charles Bulfinch, and built between 1818 and 1823, with a major expansion in 1844-46. A National Historic Landmark, it is an excellent example of Classical Revival architecture, and a rare surviving example of an early 19th-century public hospital building. The building is home to the Ether Dome, an operating theater which has been separately designated a National Historic Landmark as the site of the first public demonstration of the use of ether as an anesthetic. [2]
The Bulfinch Building is a rectangular structure, two stories in height, with a massive Ionic portico at the center of its longer facade. The building is built out of white granite from Chelmsford, Massachusetts, and stands on a basement of rusticated granite. It has a hipped roof, and the central portion has a square attic story with chimneys at the corners and a saucer-shaped dome in the center. The interior has undergone extensive and repeated renovations, as the hospital's needs for the space have changed. [2]
As designed by Charles Bulfinch in 1817 and built over the next five years by Alexander Parris, the building had smaller wings (roughly half the present size), and had a capacity of 73 beds. The stonework for its construction was largely done by the inmates at the Charlestown Prison. The building's capacity was nearly doubled in 1844-46 by the addition of five bays to each of the wings, and the original entrance hall designed by Bulfinch was extensively altered. [2]
Bulfinch's design, with an operating amphitheater under the dome, was probably based on that in the Pennsylvania Hospital building, which he probably saw on a visit in 1816. That amphitheater, now known as the Ether Dome, is where the first public demonstration of the use of ether as an anesthetic took place on October 16, 1846. The amphitheater was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965 in recognition of this event. The entire building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and designated a National Historic Landmark, in 1970, as an excellent example of Classical Revival architecture, and as one of the oldest public hospital buildings in the nation. [2]
Over the years, the building has become surrounded by the much larger modern facilities of the hospital.
The Ether Dome is a surgical operating amphitheater in the Bulfinch Building at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, United States. It served as the hospital's operating room from its opening in 1821 until 1867. It was the site of the first public demonstration of the use of inhaled ether as a surgical anesthetic on October 16, 1846, otherwise known as Ether Day. Crawford Long, a surgeon in Georgia, had previously administered sulfuric ether in 1842, but this went unpublished until 1849. The Ether Dome event occurred when William Thomas Green Morton, a local dentist, used ether to anesthetize Edward Gilbert Abbott. John Collins Warren, the first dean of Harvard Medical School, then painlessly removed part of a tumor from Abbott's neck. After Warren had finished, and Abbott regained consciousness, Warren asked the patient how he felt. Reportedly, Abbott said, "Feels as if my neck's been scratched". Warren then turned to his medical audience and uttered "Gentlemen, this is no Humbug". This was presumably a reference to the unsuccessful demonstration of nitrous oxide anesthesia by Horace Wells in the same theater the previous year, which was ended by cries of "Humbug!" after the patient groaned with pain.
Mount Auburn Cemetery, located in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, is the first rural or garden cemetery in the United States. It is the burial site of many prominent Boston Brahmins, and is a National Historic Landmark.
Charles Bulfinch was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first American-born professional architect to practice.
William Thomas Green Morton was an American dentist and physician who first publicly demonstrated the use of inhaled ether as a surgical anesthetic in 1846. The promotion of his questionable claim to have been the discoverer of anesthesia became an obsession for the rest of his life.
The Massachusetts State House, also known as the Massachusetts Statehouse or the New State House, is the state capitol and seat of government for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, located in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston. The building houses the Massachusetts General Court and the offices of the Governor of Massachusetts. The building, designed by architect Charles Bulfinch, was completed in January 1798 at a cost of $133,333, and has repeatedly been enlarged since. It is one of the oldest state capitols in current use. It is considered a masterpiece of Federal architecture and among Bulfinch's finest works, and was designated a National Historic Landmark for its architectural significance.
Quincy Market is a historic building near Faneuil Hall in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It was constructed between 1824 and 1826 and named in honor of mayor Josiah Quincy, who organized its construction without any tax or debt. The market is a designated National Historic Landmark and a designated Boston Landmark in 1996, significant as one of the largest market complexes built in the United States in the first half of the 19th century. According to the National Park Service, some of Boston's early slave auctions took place near what is now Quincy Market.
Alexander Parris was a prominent American architect-engineer. Beginning as a housewright, he evolved into an architect whose work transitioned from Federal style architecture to the later Greek Revival. Parris taught Ammi B. Young, and was among the group of architects influential in founding what would become the American Institute of Architects. He is also responsible for the designs of many lighthouses along the coastal Northeastern United States.
The Maine State House in Augusta, Maine, is the state capitol of the State of Maine. The building was completed in 1832, one year after Augusta became the capital of Maine. Built using Maine granite, the State House was based on the design of the Massachusetts State House.
University Hall is a white granite building designed by the great early American architect Charles Bulfinch and built by the noted early engineer Loammi Baldwin Jr. It is located in Harvard Yard on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970 for its architectural significance.
St. Stephen's Church is a historic church in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts. It was built in 1802–1804 as the New North Church or New North Meeting House and was designed by the noted architect Charles Bulfinch. It is the only one of the five churches he designed in Boston to remain extant. The church replaced one which had been built on the site in 1714 and enlarged in 1730. The Congregationalist church became Unitarian in 1813, and the church was sold to the Roman Catholic Diocese in 1862, and renamed St. Stephen's. It was restored and renovated in 1964-65 by Chester F. Wright, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
The First Church of Christ, Unitarian, also known as First Church of Lancaster and colloquially as "the Bulfinch Church", is a historic congregation with its meeting house located at 725 Main Street facing the Common in Lancaster, Massachusetts. The church's fifth meeting house, built in 1816, was designed by architect Charles Bulfinch, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977, recognizing it as one of Bulfinch's finest works.
The Samuel Gridley and Julia Ward Howe House is a historic rowhouse at 13 Chestnut Street in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1974 for its association with the social reform couple, Julia Ward Howe and Samuel Gridley Howe. The Howes lived in the house, which was likely designed by renowned Boston architect Charles Bulfinch, from 1863 to 1866. It has served as the temporary official residence of the British Consul General to New England since 2016.
The Boylston Building is an historic building at 2–22 Boylston Street in Boston, Massachusetts. The six-story sandstone building was designed by Carl Fehmer and built in 1887 by Woodbury & Leighton. It is an early instance in Boston of a skeleton-built commercial structure, rather than having load-bearing masonry walls. The building housed the Boylston Market, a wholesale trading exchange which had been on the site since 1810.
Church Green Buildings Historic District is a historic district at 101-113 Summer Street in Boston, Massachusetts.
Custom House District is a historic district in Boston, Massachusetts, located between the Fitzgerald Expressway and Kilby Street and South Market and High and Batterymarch Streets. Named after the 1849 Boston Custom House located on State Street, the historic district contains about seventy buildings on nearly sixteen acres in Downtown Boston, consisting of 19th-century mercantile buildings along with many early 20th-century skyscrapers, including the 1915 Custom House Tower.
The B B Chemical Company is an historic office and industrial building at 784 Memorial Drive in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was built in 1937 for the Boston Blacking Company, an adhesive manufacturer whose most famous brand name was Bostik, to a design by Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch & Abbott, and is a prominent local example of Streamline Moderne architecture. From 1979 to 1996, it served as the headquarters of the Polaroid Corporation. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 under the incorrect name "B and B Chemical Company". It is now owned by The Bulfinch Companies of Needham, Massachusetts.
North Avenue Congregational Church is a historic church meetinghouse at 1801 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was completely renovated in 2015 to become a library for Lesley University. The former church now forms part of what is now the Lunder Arts Center complex.
The East Cambridge Historic District encompasses the historic center of East Cambridge, Massachusetts. It includes the major buildings that were built to house county services for Middlesex County beginning in the 1810s, and a cluster of largely vernacular Greek Revival worker housing located west of the county complex on Otis, Thorndike, Spring, and Sciarappa Streets. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The Ether Monument, also known as The Good Samaritan, is a statue and fountain near the northwest corner of Boston's Public Garden, near the intersection of Arlington Street and Marlborough Street.
The City Hall of Manchester, New Hampshire, is located at 908 Elm Street, the city's principal commercial thoroughfare. The brick-and-granite three-story structure was built in 1844-45 to a design by Boston architect Edward Shaw, and is a prominent early example of the Gothic Revival style in a civic building. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.