Exhibit Wall Images

Bellevue Hospital, 1900
View looking southeast showing Bellevue Hospital surrounded by commercial and residential buildings along First Avenue. The large gas tanks that gave the area the name the “Gashouse District” are visible to the south.

In 1794, the City of New York purchased a building and five acres of land on the East River at present 26th Street to house those infected during epidemics in an area that was well beyond the limits of the developed city. Additional land that was part of the Belle Vue Farm was purchased in 1811 for the site of an almshouse known as the Bellevue Establishment. By 1825, the complex took on its current name of Bellevue Hospital.