have ever been refused. Three thousand meals are being
served from a kitchen built and equipped for less than half
that number.
In the free dispensary 22,187 were treated during the last
year; thirty-nine doctors are engaged in the 14 departments
of the dispensary alone. Operating cost of the institution is
nearly $600,000 a year with an annual deficit of about $80,-
000. There is an endowment of approximately $80,000.
The facts given, which could be largely supplemented,
show the need of much larger quarters. It is estimated that it
will require $1,500,000 to the point of bringing its buildings to
meet only its present needs, and the effort to obtain these
funds in now in progress.
Charles A. Muehlbronner is president of the board of di-
rectors; Hon. Charles H. Kline is vice president; Sidney F.
Heckert, Sr., is secretary-treasurer. The officers of the staff
are: Dr. C. H. Henninger, president; Dr. J. K. Everhart, vice
president, and Dr. A. J. Bruecken, secretary.
ST. JOHN’S GENERAL HOSPITAL
The need of a hospital in the lower section of Allegheny,
now the North Side of Pittsburgh, in the Wood’s Run district,
was long felt before the founding of St. John’s in 1896. In
that year St. John’s General Hospital was established on Me-
Clure avenue, by the deaconesses or Lutheran sisters in
charge of St. John’s Lutheran Home, and the late Dr. W. J.
Langfitt. It was proposed to use a site on the grounds of that
home, which consisted of two and one-half acres. The char-
ter was obtained March 28, 1896.
Before the completion of the building, which is now the
Administration building, a contract was awarded for an an-
nex, to contain public wards. May 12, 1896, is still remember-
ed by the old timers of Wood’s Run as the memorable “May
Day,” on which St. John’s opened its doors to receive the sick
and wounded. No distinction was shown by the Lutheran
deaconesses as regards religion, nationality or color. After
their departure the management of the hospital was placed in
the hands of lay people. Later the hospital came under the
care of the Sisters of Divine Providence, under the approval
