- Collection:
- Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation Presentation Slide Collection, 1968-2000
- Title:
- Crawford Long Hospital
- Creator:
- Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation
- Contributor to Resource:
- Wachendorff, Eugene C., 1880-1957
Lyon, Elizabeth Anne Mack
Emory University
Long, Crawford Williamson, 1815-1878
Davis, Edward Campbell, 1868-1931
Fischer, L. C. (Luther C.), 1871-1953 - Date of Original:
- 1998
- Subject:
- Architecture
Historic sites--Georgia--Fulton County
Historic buildings--Georgia--Fulton County
Commercial buildings--Georgia--Fulton County
Colonial revival (Architecture)
Architecture, Georgian--United States
Cultural property--Protection
Historic preservation--Georgia
Historic buildings--Conservation and restoration - Location:
- United States, Georgia, Fulton County, Atlanta, 33.749, -84.38798
- Medium:
- color slides
georgian revival
historic preservation
historic buildings - Type:
- Still Image
- Format:
- image/jp2
- Description:
- Dr. L. C. (Luther) Fischer and Dr. Edward Campbell Davis started the Davis-Fischer Sanitorium on Crew Street in 1908. Then they built Crawford Long Hospital on Linden Avenue in 1911, which is now Emory University Hospital Midtown. Prior to Dr. Davis' death in 1931, the two doctors changed the hospital from for-profit to non-profit so they could provide healthcare to all Atlantans. In 1940, Dr. Fischer gave the hospital to the Emory University School of Medicine, “to serve as an arm of its teaching and healing mission." Crawford W. Long Memorial Hospital is significant in the fields of both architecture and medicine. Known from 1911 to 1931 as the Davis-Fischer Sanatorium at this location, the hospital is architecturally significant because both buildings reflect the prevailing principles of functionally-designed hospitals and medical institutions of the early 20th century when they were built. Both were designed by Atlanta-born architect Eugene C. Wachendorff (1880-1957). During this same time Wachendorff was simultaneously designing hospitals in smaller Georgia cities, such as Columbus and Thomasville. His use of Georgian Revival style motifs was typical of this period. Details of this style include use of red brick, classical details in the cornice, porches, and keystones as well as the overall symmetry of the buildings. However, the large porches and former roof gardens reflect the prevailing ideas that fresh air was a major part of a patient's recovery. The complex also was built of reinforced concrete to make it fireproof, and had battery-operated electrical reserves for important equipment. In medicine, the hospital is significant as the second oldest surviving medical building in the city and the oldest surviving privately-built medical building in the city. It is an example of a hospital which has survived from an early attempt at creating and operating a privately-owned and -operated hospital and as one that always exemplified the latest in medical technology. It was one of only three "large" hospitals in the city when it was founded in 1911. Several of the Davis-Fischer Sanitorium's achievements include housing the first blood bank, being the first Atlanta hospital with a recovery room for surgery patients, instituting a baby identification program by foot printing babies in 1921, and electric signaling for nurses, also in 1921. The institution was renamed in 1931 for Georgia's famed Dr. Crawford W. Long, the Georgia physician who discovered sulphuric ether for use as an anesthetic, and the first doctor to use anesthesia during surgery. Long is one of Georgia's two representatives in the United States Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol). The hospital has remained a forerunner in medical activities as part of Emory University since 1940.The Crawford W. Long Memorial Hospital consists of two historic hospital buildings in the Georgian Revival style with a historic 2-bay connector link which joins the two. The complex faces Linden Avenue in the "midtown" area of Atlanta. The 1911 building, the original hospital building now known as building A, was originally built in an H-shape. It contains four stories and a basement, and has a one-story portico supported by groupings of Doric columns. The portico's central portion, which rises to two stories, is supported by six fluted colossal Ionic columns. The porticos shelter the main entrances and are elevated above the sidewalks. The A building is embellished with classical features consistent with its Georgian Revival design. The historic annex and nurses' home (building B) and infill complement and continue the original design. Building B (the annex), added in 1921, reflects the same architectural details but rises to six stories over a basement. It was built in a simple rectangular shape facing Linden Avenue. Both buildings have red-brick exterior walls, with concrete keystones above the original front facade window openings. The windows retain their original style, numbers of panes, and wooden trim. The buildings were built of reinforced concrete, a fireproof construction technique, most noticeable in the basement level, which remains virtually unchanged. Much of the original historic mechanical systems as well as their updated counterparts remain in the basement, including the 1921 laundry, heating plant, and ice plant. The hospital is in a commercial area. Changes to the two nominated buildings include the joining of the two historic structures in 1938 by an historic connector link designed by Phillip Shutze. The hospital offices, operating rooms, and patient rooms have all been modernized several times since they were built, as would be expected, befitting a modern, university-owned hospital, although much of the original floor plan remains on some floors. The original courtyard area, to the left rear of the front entrance of Building A was enclosed in 1961 to create a chapel. It is only two stories high, one of which is the basement. The exterior of the two historic, nominated buildings remains virtually the same as it did in 1921 upon the completion of the second building, "B," save some modernizations. All major connections to the surrounding buildings have been done in more modern materials, making them rather obvious. Major Bibliographical References 1. Roberts, Peter. "Davis-Fischer Sanitarium (sic)..." Historic Property Information Form, May 30, 1986, as a student project at Georgia State University. On file at the Historic Preservation Section, Department of Natural Resources, Atlanta, Georgia. 2. Clendenen, Lois and Nancy Yarn. 75 Years Between the Peachtrees; A History of Crawford W. Long Memorial Hospital of Emory University. Atlanta: Susan Hunter Publishing Co., 1987.4. Philip T. Shutze visual arts materials (ahc.VIS351) Series I: Architectural drawings, 1823-1993, undated Crawford W. Long Memorial Hospital, alterations to nursery, 35 Linden Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia, Job 3812, 1938. Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center.5. “Caring for Atlanta, A History of Emory Crawford Long Hospital,” by Ren Davis. Variant names include: Emory University Hospital Midtown, Crawford W. Long Memorial Hospital, Crawford Long Hospital, Crawford Long, Emory Crawford Long Hospital, Davis-Fischer Sanatorium. See ref # 88001465 (Long, Crawford W., Memorial Hospital) https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/upload/national-register-listed-20240710.xlsx
- External Identifiers:
- Metadata URL:
- https://dlg.usg.edu/record/gthp_gthp-slides_417
- Digital Object URL:
- https://dlg.usg.edu/record/gthp_gthp-slides_417#item
- IIIF manifest:
- https://dlg.usg.edu/record/gthp_gthp-slides_417/presentation/manifest.json
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- Please contact holding institution for information regarding use and copyright status.
- Holding Institution:
- Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation
- Rights:
-
