Harrisburg Polyclinic Hospital

Harrisburg Polyclinic Hospital. . At the beginning of the 20th Century, the growth of Pennsylvania's capital city created the demand for a second public hospital. Harrisburg Hospital, founded in 1873 partially as an outgrowth from the intense medical treatment provided at Harrisburg's Camp Curtin Hospital during the Civil War, could not keep pace with the increasing demand for institutional care. A group of leading Harrisburg physicians thus chartered the Harrisburg Polyclinic Hospital in 1909. It originally operated through a shared arrangement at the private Shope Hospital at N. Second and Hamilton Streets. By 1914, the Hospital had taken over the former Judge James M. Porter Mansion, at N. Front and Harris Streets, now the location of Riverview Manor. There, improvements were made until the early 1920s when a proposed addition to the building prompted neighborhood opposition. The Hospital consequently bought the old Maple Hill Playground between N. Third and N. Fourth Streets at the northern end of the city, where a new hospital was erected 1925-26. Federal Revival in style, the facility was heralded as exemplary in hospital design and afforded fresh air and panoramic views. Simultaneous to the original hospital was the construction of the Donaldson Nurse's Home, just to the north, which was expanded several times over the years. Further growth resulted in the addition of north and south wings to the Main Hospital Building in 1949-52, terminated at either end by distinctive curved solarium towers. The final piece to the original hospital complex came in 1955 with the completion of the Kline Children's Hospital and Eye clinic. Although it has undergone adaptive reuse, the original Harrisburg Polyclinic Hospital today stands aa a unified architecturally significant complex, a rarity in the evolution of typical health-care facility development in America. , [Captions (top to bottom)] , . Circa 1947 view of original hospital building (right) and Donaldson Nurse's Home (left). , . 1926 postcard view of original hospital building just after completion. , . 1952 postcard view of expanded main hospital building showing distinctive curved solariums.