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