Massachusetts General Hospital, Bulfinch Building

	Massachusetts General Hospital
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
	U.S. National Historic Landmark
	An early view of the Bulfinch Building
Location	Fruit Street, Boston, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°21′48″N71°4′8″W / 42.36333°N 71.06889°W 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 #	70000682 [1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	December 30, 1970
Designated NHL	December 30, 1970

Last updated April 23, 2019

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]

Massachusetts General Hospital is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and a biomedical research facility located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United States. With Brigham and Women's Hospital, it is one of the two founding members of Partners HealthCare, the largest healthcare provider in Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Hospital conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the world, with an annual research budget of more than $900 million. It is currently ranked as the #4 hospital in the United States by U.S. News & World Report.

The West End is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, bounded generally by Cambridge Street to the south, the Charles River to the west and northwest, North Washington Street on the north and northeast, and New Sudbury Street on the east. Beacon Hill is to the south, and the North End is to the east. A late 1950s urban renewal project razed a large Italian and Jewish enclave in order to redevelop the area.

Charles Bulfinch was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first native-born American to practice architecture as a profession.

Description and history

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]

Chelmsford is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts in the United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town's population was 33,802. Only 48.4% are male and the median age of residents in Chelmsford is 39.2 years old. It is located 24 miles (39 km) northwest of Boston and, bordering on the city of Lowell, is part of the Greater Lowell metropolitan area. Besides Lowell on its northeast, Chelmsford is surrounded by four towns: Tyngsborough to the north, Billerica to the southeast, Carlisle to the south, and Westford to the west. Chelmsford is bordered by two sizable rivers: the Merrimack River to the north, and the Concord River to the east.

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]

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.

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]

Pennsylvania Hospital is a private, non-profit, 515-bed teaching hospital located in Center City Philadelphia and affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania Health System. Founded on May 11, 1751, by Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond, Pennsylvania Hospital is the earliest established public hospital in the United States. It is also home to America's first surgical amphitheatre and its first medical library. The hospital's main building, dating to 1756, is a National Historic Landmark.

The Ether Dome is a surgical operating amphitheater in the Bulfinch Building at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. 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.

Diethyl ether, or simply ether, is an organic compound in the ether class with the formula (C^₂H^₅)^₂O, sometimes abbreviated as Et^₂O. It is a colorless, highly volatile flammable liquid. It is commonly used as a solvent in laboratories and as a starting fluid for some engines. It was formerly used as a general anesthetic, until non-flammable drugs were developed, such as halothane. It has been used as a recreational drug to cause intoxication.

The building is now surrounded by the much larger modern facilities of the hospital.

Related Research Articles

Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural, or garden, cemetery in the United States, located on the line between Cambridge and Watertown in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Boston. It is the burial site of many prominent members of the Boston Brahmins, as well being a National Historic Landmark.

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 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 market complex near Faneuil Hall in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It was constructed in 1824–26 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 Boston Landmark, significant as one of the largest market complexes built in the United States in the first half of the 19th century.

United First Parish Church is a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Quincy, Massachusetts, established as the parish church of Quincy in 1639. The current building was constructed in 1828 by noted Boston stonecutter Abner Joy to designs by Alexander Parris. The building was designated a National Historic Landmark on December 30, 1970, for its association with the Adams family, who funded its construction and whose most significant members are interred here.

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.

The First Church of Christ, Unitarian, also known as First Church of Christ, Lancaster and colloquially as "the Bulfinch Church", is an 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.

Norfolk County Courthouse National Historic Landmark in Dedham, Massachusetts

The Norfolk County Courthouse is a National Historic Landmark at 650 High Street in Dedham, Massachusetts. It currently houses the Norfolk County Superior Court. It is significant as a well-preserved Greek Revival courthouse of the 1820s, and as the site a century later of the famous Sacco-Vanzetti trial. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1972, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Armory of the First Corps of Cadets is an historic armory at 97–105 Arlington Street and 130 Columbus Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts. The four-story granite structure was designed by William Gibbons Preston and built beginning in 1891 and finished in 1897. Due to political unrest during the period, the building was designed to withstand mob violence. Its most prominent feature is its six-story tower. It is built in the Romanesque Revival style. The buildings staircases are built by the Guastavino system, as are some tower vaults.

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.

The Bulfinch Triangle Historic District is a historic district roughly bounded by Canal, Market, Merrimac, and Causeway Streets in the West End of Boston, Massachusetts. It is part of the Bulfinch Triangle neighborhood, which is bounded by North Washington, Market, Merrimac, and Causeway Streets. The district was laid out on a filled-in cove by Charles Bulfinch, and is now populated by well-preserved commercial buildings from the 1870s through early 1900s. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

The Second Brazer Building is an historic office building at 25-29 State Street in Boston, Massachusetts. It is a locally significant early Beaux Arts design.

The Almshouse is an historic almshouse located at 45 Matignon Road in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is now the site of the International School of Boston's main campus. It was built in 1850, and is a prominent example of institutional residential architecture in stone, resembling prisons of the era. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, where it is incorrectly listed at 41 Orchard Street.

North Avenue Congregational Church is a historic church meetinghouse at 1801(previously at 1803) Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It has been renovated to become a library for Lesley University as part of 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.

References

↑ National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
1 2 3 4 "NHL nomination for Massachusetts General Hospital". National Park Service. Retrieved 2014-06-03.

A more recent view of the building Mghbullfinch.jpg — A more recent view of the building

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[nris-1] National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.

[NHL-2] 1 2 3 4 "NHL nomination for Massachusetts General Hospital". National Park Service. Retrieved 2014-06-03.

Massachusetts General Hospital, Bulfinch Building

Contents

Description and history

See also

Related Research Articles

References