In 1909, the synod of the Evangelical Church, a predecessor of the United Church of Christ, founded a Deaconess Society in the German tradition that called on Christian Sisters to offer hospital care to Milwaukee’s sick and needy.[1] The fifteen-bed unit established by the Society in 1910 on what is now West Wisconsin Avenue grew into a modern hospital that continued to expand until the late 1970s, when cost-saving initiatives in the health care industry encouraged consolidation.[2] Deaconess began shuttering its departments and sharing services with Milwaukee Lutheran Hospital before the two institutions merged in 1980 to form Good Samaritan Medical Center. Good Samaritan closed the Deaconess campus five years later.[3] A subsequent merger in 1987 with Mount Sinai Medical Center created Sinai Samaritan Medical Center, which at that time, came under control of Aurora Health Care.[4]
Footnotes [+]
- ^ Ellen D. Langill, A Tradition of Caring: The History of Milwaukee’s Three Primary Service Hospitals (Milwaukee: Sinai-Samaritan Hospitals History Committee, 1999); 56; “To Dedicate Evangelical Deaconess’ Home and Hospital,” The Milwaukee Sentinel, August 28, 1910, accessed February 2, 2014, http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19100828&id=HgtQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-QkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2403,3516659; “Hospital Here 25 Years Old—Deaconess to Observe Its Jubilee with Aid of Church Members, The Milwaukee Journal, November, 9, 1935, accessed 9 February, 2014, http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19351109&id=c6lQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-SEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6735,6506039; Earl R. Thayer, Seeking to Serve: The Medical Society of Milwaukee County, 1846-1996 (Wauwatosa, WI: Vilar Arts, Inc, 1996): 146. This original hospital existed at 1807 Wisconsin Avenue (then Grand Avenue) in the remodeled Wuerdeman home until 1917 when it moved into a 50-bed facility constructed on a bordering lot.
- ^ Thayer, Seeking to Serve, 146; “To Dedicate Evangelical Deaconess’ Home and Hospital,” The Milwaukee Sentinel, August 28, 1910, accessed January 15, 2014, http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19100828&id=HgtQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-QkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2403,3516659; Langill, A Tradition of Caring, 129.
- ^ Thayer, Seeking to Serve, 146-47. Operations continued at the Deaconess (1800 West Wisconsin Avenue) and Milwaukee Lutheran (2200 Kilbourn Avenue) sites until 1984, when facilities were consolidated at the Kilbourn site. Langill, A Tradition of Caring, 129-44; Rock Romell, “Hospital Losses Hit City Heart,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 15, 2006, accessed April, 28, 2015, https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1683&dat=20060515&id=_yMqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GkUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6371,3898694&hl=en.
- ^ Thayer, Seeking to Serve, 146-47; Langill, A Tradition of Caring, 129-44.
For Further Reading
Langill, Ellen D. A Tradition of Caring: The History of Milwaukee’s Three Primary Service Hospitals. Milwaukee: Sinai-Samaritan Hospitals History Committee, 1999.
Thayer, Earl R. Seeking to Serve: The Medical Society of Milwaukee County, 1846-1996. Wauwatosa, WI: Vilar Arts, Inc., 1996.
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