The Syracuse Free Dispensary

Text Source: Past and Present of Syracuse and Onondaga County New York, by The Rev. William M. Beauchamp, S.T.D., 1908, pg. 570.

The Syracuse Free Dispensary, now located at the junction of Warren and East Onondaga streets, was established September 5, 1888 for the treatment of the poor of the city who are able to go to the dispensary.  Some idea of the work can be gained when it is said that eight thousand hundred and thirty-eight treatments were given in 1906.  From 1897 to 1900 the Dispensary was located at 407 South Warren street.


Text Source: Syracuse and Its Environs, by Franklin H. Chase, Lewis Historical Pub. Co., Chicago, IL, 1924, pg. 494.

Free Dispensary and Its Noble Work.
One night in the summer of 1888 - it was July 5 - there was a meeting in the office of Dr. John Van Duyn in South Salina Street, which meant much to Syracuse.  Dr. Van Duyn was health officer, and the idea of the meeting was to see if something could not be done about furnishing medical supplies and the service of physicians to residents of the city too poor to pay for such necessities.  That was the foundation of the Free Dispensary, one of the greatest and most far-reaching of the city's charitable institutions.  Dr. Henry D. Didama, who also assisted in bringing these men together, was the first president, Charles G. Belden the vice-president, M. E. Driscoll secretary, and Edward H. Burdick, treasurer.  Upon that first board of trustees were Louis Marshall, Frederick R. Hazard, Daniel Crichton, W. F. Dunn, William K. Niver, Amos Padgham, Edward Ryan, E. C. Stearns, C. L. Hoffman, Hendrick S. Holden and J. S. Wynkoop.  The incorporation is dated July 17, 1888.

The first quarters, from 1888 to 1897, were in the old Remington Block, where the University Building is at present.  Then, until 1904, they were at 407 South Warren Street.  Next in the old homestead at 506 South Warren Street, the Hotel Syracuse site, until 1914, when they were moved into Dispensary Building at 610 East Fayette Street, built by the University for this work, but the Dispensary was still supported by the charitable.

Under the same roof of this unique building at 610 East Fayette Street, the corner stone of which Chancellor Day laid in 1912, there were housed several of the public charities having to do with the amelioration of the physical troubles of mankind.  Besides, there was cooperation with other charitable institutions to make certain of non-duplication.  In the latter part of 1899, there was established The Clinic and Free Dispensary for Pulmonary Diseases, believed to be the first in the world.  The necessary license was secured from the State Board of Charities, and D. M. Edwards was the first president.  The Bureau of Health Supervision of the city, and the Tuberculosis Clinic, with Dr. H. Burton Doust in charge, also a city department, were located in this building. 

Dr. Charles H. Benson, registrar of the Free Dispensary for many years, reported at the close of 1923, that the dispensary was quick to register the economic conditions of the city.  That year of 1923 showed a decrease of nine hundred and thirty-eight new cases from 1922, and a decrease of 3,191 old cases, a total fall of 4,129 cases from the previous year.  The new cases of 1923 were 4,915, and of revisits, 22,905.  This gives an idea of the work passing through the dispensary in later years.

While the Free Dispensary is the apex to date of accomplishment in philanthropy - an institution of the greatest value of the city in social welfare - a working memorial of the days when dollars for charity were few and the need so great, there were several organizations that did much but no where near approached the necessity, long before the dispensary.  There was the dispensary in East Genesee Street, at one time, but later in other places, of the Homeopathic Association.  Incorporated January 30, 1881, was the Syracuse Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary.  As this was located for years in the little brick building at 52 1/2 South Warren Street, later No. 312, occupied by Dr. U. H. Brown, it is a matter of history that he gave much to it, and, after his death, the work was much reduced.  James J. Belden was its president.

Submitted 12 March 2006 by Pamela Priest
Updated 14 March 2006 by Pamela Priest