Remember the Sisters Sister Jane Iannucelli, President of the Sisters of Charity of New York, asks Christine Quinn, Scott Stringer, Amanda Burden, Brad Hoylman and Bill Rudin, to name the triangular park in front of St. Vincent’s after her order.
The Sisters of Charity established St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village in 1849. The hospital’s history was an everyday caring for the poor and the sick. In addition, the hospital served patients and victims of several tragedies as well as key medical history milestones, including:
- 1870: Providing New York City’s first ambulance service—a horse drawn buggy
- 1900: Providing the first automotive ambulance in the U.S.
- 1911: Treating the survivors of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the largest industrial fire in NYC history
- 1912: Treating the 117 survivors of the Titanic
- 1969: Creation, by one of its physicians, of the first mobile coronary unit (crash cart) in the United States
- 1980s: Serving in the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic; one of the first hospitals accepting and treating HIV patients; and pioneering in home nursing services for AIDS-afflicted persons
- 1993: Treating survivors of the first WTC bombing
- 2001: Acting as the first response hospital for the 9/11 terrorist attacks and treating 844 survivors; establishing a family center for more than 6,800 families searching for their loved ones
- 2010: Prior to its closing, providing $30 million of unreimbursed medical care annually to those unable to pay.
As one walks around Greenwich Village, it is clear that the community is proud of its history, and the small parks somehow tell a story of this great neighborhood.
After the trauma of the loss of St. Vincent’s passes, the Sisters of Charity hope that the hospital and its heritage will also be remembered for its contributions through a respectful memorial component of the new triangle park.
Tags: New York, SCNY, Sisters of Charity
