The Baltimore General Dispensary (1801-1959)

  While public opinion of our current health system and Obamacare is still being deliberated, there was such a time when there were Free Dispensaries connected with every College. At one point in Baltimore history, there were also four City Dispensaries where patients received medical aid in Baltimore free of charge and were often visited at their homes by the Dispensary physicians.  Over the 158 years of Baltimore's oldest charity operation, the Baltimore General Dispensary treated a total of 950,310 patients and filled over 1.5 million prescriptions.

Original 1801Location:
127 E. Baltimore Street

  On February 10, 1801, at the old Indian Queen Tavern, which was on the corner of Hanover and Baltimore Streets (currently where the Morris Mechanic Theater sits), a few generous and kindhearted gentlemen had a zeal for the welfare of the poor.  Seeing that there was no organized system of relief, they got together to form by-laws.  Three other meetings transpired that month after which the original consulting and attending physicians and apothecary were assigned.  It endeavored to alleviate the sufferings of the sick and poor, “whether Presbyterian, Methodist, Catholic or Jew.”

  A search of the records of the Maryland Historical Society revealed an old painting showing Baltimore Street looking west from Calvert Street and the first home (1801 to 1803) of the Baltimore General Dispensary at No. 127 E. Baltimore Street on the southeast corner of Public Alley (now Grant Street).

  According to the History of the Baltimore General Dispensary, the first case was recorded as being on April 1, 1801 and a total of 300 patients were treated the first year.  In 1802, the hours were 8am to 2pm and 3pm to 6pm every day such that “every case shall be duly attended, whether acute, chronic, surgical, or obstetric” by physicians who were salaried at $300 per year in 1803.

651 W. Lexington St, 1893

  The Dispensary moved to a house on Light Street for several months and then again in October 1803 to a house on Chatham (now Fayette) Street between Charles Street and St. Paul Lane.

  What began as a mere charity, in 1807 the Baltimore General Dispensary proposed to the Maryland General Assembly that it be incorporated and became the third charted institution in the State of Maryland, only to be preceded by the Equitable Fire Insurance Company and the Bank of Baltimore.

  On Dec 7, 1837, the Dispensary moved to a rented house on the northeast corner of Liberty and Fayette Streets (it later built a three story building there in June 1875) where it dutifully provided services until 1893.

500 W. Fayette Street (Photo: Courtesy, Wikipedia)

  In 1893, the Baltimore General Dispensary moved to a house it purchased at 651 W. Lexington Street. By 1900, the City Charter contained provisions giving the mayor and the City Council power to make contracts with it and other dispensaries around the city.

  The Lexington Street property was sold for the purchase of a dwelling on the northwest corner of Paca and Fayette Streets.  The building standing today, shown at right, was architected by Geroge Norbury Mackenzie III, built in 1911, and on Feb 15, 1912 received its first patients until it closed in 1958.  The work of the Baltimore General Dispensary Foundation, while not currently conducted within a building, continues to this day through funds to area hospitals for medicine in their outpatient departments.  

(Source: "A History of the Baltimore General Dispensary", 1963, Baltimore General Dispensary Foundation, Inc. )