Tuberculosis in Pittsburgh (Washington, Bedford, Howard: transfer, floor, farm)

[melkarth]

I'm not sure how I got onto this topic, but it seems that Pittsburgh had two tb hospitals, one at Marcy Hospital in Leech Farms and one on the Hill at 2851 Bedford Avenue.

Does anybody know if one was a white hospital and one was a black hospital?

It seems like a reasonable guess, but I can't find anything on the Internet that says for sure.

Thanks!

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by melkarth

I'm not sure how I got onto this topic, but it seems that Pittsburgh had two tb hospitals, one at Marcy Hospital in Leech Farms and one on the Hill at 2851 Bedford Avenue.

I knew there was a TB sanatorium up near where the Highland Drive VA is now, but I had no idea it was called Marcy or that the area was called Leech Farms. If I remember, the next time I run into one of the old-timers up there, I'll ask.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by melkarth

I'm not sure how I got onto this topic, but it seems that Pittsburgh had two tb hospitals, one at Marcy Hospital in Leech Farms and one on the Hill at 2851 Bedford Avenue.

Does anybody know if one was a white hospital and one was a black hospital?

It seems like a reasonable guess, but I can't find anything on the Internet that says for sure.

Thanks!

One may have been for city of Pittsburgh patients, and one for Allegheny County patients.

Perhaps similar to Mayview and Woodville state hospitals- where Mayview was owned and operated by the City of Pittsburgh government and Woodville for county psych patients.


I never heard what you suggested, and the size of the two institutions would have really been different as Pittsburgh really didn't have a very high population of African Americans when TB was popular and still doesn't even after waves of immigration from the south in the 1920's and later.

[I_Like_Spam]

The Marcy Hospital on Leech Farm was apparently the city operated TB sanitarium later taken over by the state, the Bedford Ave. facility was a privately owned facility owned and operated by the Tuberculosis League- a predecessor to the American Lung Association, which changed its name and expanded its mission after TB declined in popularity.

The Bedford hospital was much older.

[shsh38]

C. Howard Marcy State Hospital, on the hill over Washington Blvd., was part of a larger facility, as I recall. One building/campus was medical (and may even have been exclusively for TB patients) and the other was for psychiatric patients being treated by the Veteran's Administration. In the early 1950s, the (private) Tuberculosis League of Pittsburgh hospital on Bedford Ave. closed to inpatients and all pts were transferred to several state hospitals. My mother was one of those, and she was transferred to Marcy, which we knew only as "Leech Farm." That place was horrible, horrible. I will not detail anything here, but the experience was burned into my brain and I can still get the willies when I drive past there. (I think it's now where Shuman Center juvenile facility is located, and the VA Hospital is also on that hill.) Someone here asked if one hospital was for white people and the other for people of color. No, there was no segregation in either facility. Both staff and patients were "integrated." My memory is that there were few patients of color and even fewer staff members of color, but I was young and I didn't go anywhere around there much except to the ward where my mother's room was. One of my mother's friends on her floor was an African-American woman, younger and very pretty but I can't recall her name. When Mother died in 1956, all contact with the facility and its patients ended for our family. Hope this helps.