page_title: Queens Hospital Center
section_title: Construction of Queens General Hospital
hierarchical_section_title: Queens Hospital Center / History / Construction of Queens General Hospital
caption_attribution_description: English: Palmer working on a WPA mural at the Queens County General Hospital. Identification on verso (handwritten and stamped): Art Service Project; 137 E. 57th Street; New York CityLocation: Art Service Park (Murals); Date: 8/7/36; Negative No.: 1368A; Photographer: Herman; Artist: Wm. C. Palmer; Title: Foibles of Medicine.Accompanying paper reads: William C. PalmerBorn in 1906, Des Moines, Iowa. Studied at Art Students League, Exoleves Beaux Arts De Fontainbleau, France; Taught privately&#160;; did a mural for Queens Co. General Hospital, while on PWAP, from July to Oct., 1934. Studied fresco, painting under Baudoun in 1927. Private instructor in technical facts on painting, chemistry of color, method, oil in tempera and Florentine guilding.
context_page_description: Queens Hospital Center, also known as NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens and originally called Queens General Hospital, is a large public hospital campus in the Jamaica Hills and Hillcrest neighborhoods of Queens in New York City. It is operated by NYC Health + Hospitals, a public benefit corporation of the city.
  Queens General Hospital opened in 1935 as the first municipal general hospital in the borough. It would absorb the adjacent Queensboro Hospital for Communicable Diseases shortly after opening, and the campus would later include Triboro Hospital for Tuberculosis, which opened in 1941. Queens Hospital Center was formed in 1952 and 1959 with the official merger of the three hospitals along with two other Queens medical facilities. The current campus consists of modern buildings constructed in the 21st century, along with the former Triboro Hospital building.
context_section_description: In 1928, Queens County Medical Society (or the Medical Society of Queens County) began petitioning the New York City Board of Estimate and Mayor Jimmy Walker for a free public hospital in the borough. At the time, there were no municipal general hospitals in Queens, and people were required to use Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, or Bellevue Hospital in Lower Manhattan. Queens General Hospital was proposed by the city in 1929, also referred to as the new Queensboro Hospital. The vacant property adjacent to the existing Queensboro Hospital was selected as the site for the new hospital. At the time, only five of the 22 acres on the site were occupied. The contract for general construction was approved by Board of Estimate on October 24, 1930. The cornerstone of the main building was laid by Mayor Walker on June 19, 1931, at 164th Street. The buildings were largely complete by 1932, but remained inactive due to a lack of funds to purchase equipment and furniture, and to complete the surrounding grounds. Meanwhile, a storm drain was installed along 164th Street between Goethals Avenue and 78th Road (just past Union Turnpike) by 1933. The primitive dirt roads surrounding the hospital including 164th Street were improved and paved, with Works Progress Administration funds. Two willow trees, which originally divided farms in the area, were preserved for the hospital, and were the only trees on the hospital grounds upon its opening. On January 5, 1934, the city was awarded a Public Works Administration grant of $800,000, of which $260,000 went to the hospital project. These were the first PWA funds received by city and allowed work on buildings to be completed. The project, however, continued to suffer delays, which led to complaints and protests from local residents. Hospitals commissioner Sigismund Goldwater said that the completion of the hospital was blocked by "red tape". On October 30, 1935, the hospital was dedicated, with Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, commissioner Goldwater and Queens Borough President George U. Harvey in attendance.
  The new Queens General Hospital campus was referred to as a "miniature city" due to its many buildings, and its self-sustaining facilities such as the power plant, a heating plant, and the laundry building. Among the then-modern medical innovations at the hospital were specialized X-ray equipment, radium for the treatment of cancer (a practice now obsolete), and an iron lung. The first patient was admitted to Queens General Hospital on November 17, 1935. Beds in the new hospital were reserved for patients who could not afford to pay; those who could were forced to use one of the private hospitals in the borough. On March 1, 1936, the Queensboro Hospital was merged into Queens General. At this time, Queensboro Hospital was renamed the Queensboro Pavilion for Communicable Diseases. By July 1936 the hospital was overcrowded, operating at 126.3 percent capacity.
  Additional storm drains were installed around hospital and in the surrounding neighborhood in 1939. Around this time the Queensboro Pavilion was renovated. Triboro Hospital for Tuberculosis was dedicated at the west end of the campus on January 28, 1941 by Mayor La Guardia, who stated that it was designed to be converted into a general hospital "twenty-five years from now."
caption: William C. Palmer working on a mural in Queens General Hospital in 1936
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