Baltimore General Dispensary is a historic

public dispensary A public dispensary, charitable dispensary or free dispensary gives advice and medicines free-of-charge, or for a small charge. Provident dispensary In the 19th and early 20th centuries a provident dispensary was a clinic offering medical care ...

building located at

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It opened in 1801 to provide medical and health services to the poor in Baltimore. It is the oldest institution of its kind in Maryland. It is three bays wide and two stories high, with running bond red brick foundation and building walls, and a water table constructed in 1911. The front features a simple

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

surmounting a stone entablature reading: 1801 Baltimore General Dispensary 1911. It is the only surviving building designed for Baltimore's oldest charity. The interior originally featured a large dispensary center on the first floor, separated for black and white patients. The rooms for surgical and medical aid on the second floor gave the poor a measure of privacy rarely available to charity patients. Baltimore General Dispensary was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1980.

References

External links

*, including photo from 1984, at Maryland Historical Trust
Maryland History Online, Medicine in Maryland 1752-1920, Baltimore General Dispensary
Downtown Baltimore Hospital buildings completed in 1911 Hospitals in Baltimore Hospital buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Baltimore Defunct hospitals in Maryland Hospitals established in 1801 Neoclassical architecture in Maryland 1911 establishments in Maryland Dispensaries in the United States {{Maryland-hospital-stub