| Mount Sinai Morningside | |
|---|---|
| Mount Sinai Health System | |
 Mount Sinai Morningside | |
 | |
| Geography | |
| Location | 1111 Amsterdam Avenue,New York City, New York 10027, United States |
| Coordinates | 40°48′20″N73°57′42″W / 40.8055°N 73.9618°W /40.8055; -73.9618 |
| Organization | |
| Care system | Private |
| Type | Tertiaryteaching hospital |
| Affiliated university | Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai |
| Network | Mount Sinai Health System |
| Services | |
| Emergency department | Level II trauma center |
| Beds | 489 |
| History | |
| Former names |
|
| Opened | 1846[1] |
| Links | |
| Website | www |
| Lists | Hospitals in the United States |
| Other links | Hospitals in Manhattan |
Mount Sinai Morningside | |
| Built | 1896–1928 |
| Architect | Ernest Flagg |
| Architectural style | FrenchRenaissance Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 100003934 |
| NYCL No. | 2113 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | May 20, 2019 |
| Designated NYCL | June 18, 2002 (Plant and Scrymser Pavilions only)[3] |
Mount Sinai Morningside, formerly known asMount Sinai St. Luke's, is ateaching hospital located in theMorningside Heights neighborhood ofManhattan inNew York City. It is affiliated with theIcahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and theMount Sinai Health System, a nonprofit hospital system formed by the merger of Continuum Health Partners and theMount Sinai Medical Center in September 2013. It provides general medical and surgical facilities, ambulatory care, and aLevel II Trauma Center, verified by theAmerican College of Surgeons.[4] From 1978 to 2020, it was affiliated withMount Sinai West as part ofSt. Luke's–Roosevelt Hospital Center.
Mount Sinai Morningside is the primary provider of health care serving the neighborhoods of theUpper West Side and westernHarlem. As of 2025, Dr. Tracy Breen, MD, FACP, is the interim president and Chief Medical Officer.
The structure was erected in 1896 asSt. Luke's Hospital, and was designed byErnest Flagg. Several additions were built in the early 20th century, and some of the original pavilions have been demolished. Parts of the facility have been designated as an officialNew York City landmark, and the remaining pavilions of the original hospital are listed on theNational Register of Historic Places.
In addition to primary care, the hospital includes specialty clinics. A partial list includescardiology/cardiovascular surgery,cancer,bariatrics anddiabetes,geriatrics, andneurology.[5]
The facility has 489 beds.[6]
The Emergency department is staffed 24-hours by board-certified physicians, nurses, physician assistants, social workers, and case managers who specialize inemergency medicine. The hospital also provides pediatric emergency medicine, psychiatric emergency, and specialized services for victims ofsexual assaults. The department has a 24-hour stroke team and Heart Attack (MI) Team, as well as a 24-hour on-callcardiac catheterization lab.
The Department of Medicine trains 158 residents and an additional 39 fellows. Each program has full accreditation from theAccreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the institution itself is accredited for the maximum 5-year cycle. The program has its own Simulation Lab for training residents. The residency program in Anatomic andClinical Pathology usedMount Sinai Beth Israel, until it closed in 2025,[7] in addition to Mount Sinai Morningside andMount Sinai West.
St. Luke's was founded byWilliam Augustus Muhlenberg, pastor of theEpiscopalChurch of the Holy Communion. In 1846, Muhlenberg started raising funds for New York City residents who were both poor and ill.[8][9] St. Luke's was incorporated in 1850,[8][10][11] becoming only the fourth general hospital to open in New York City.[10] The hospital received its first patients in 1853, initially operating within the Church of the Holy Communion building atSixth Avenue and20th Street in present-dayChelsea.[10][11] The next year, the institution acquired a plot onFifth Avenue between54th and55th Streets, nearSt. Patrick's Cathedral.[10] John W. Ritch designed a new brick building in theRomanesque Revival style, which was composed of two wings flanking a central pavilion.[8][12]
St. Luke's Hospital moved to its Fifth Avenue location in 1858.[11][12][13] Muhlenberg continued his role as hospital superintendent until his death in 1877. He was succeeded by the Rev. George S. Baker.[14] By the late 19th century, the hospital's Fifth Avenue location was becoming outdated due to the expansion of the hospital facilities.[12][13][15] A training school for nurses was founded in 1888, and three years later,tuberculosis patients were moved to a facility inTremont, Bronx.[16] By 1892, St. Luke's Hospital had treated 36,050 patients.[17]
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In March 1891, a committee was established to search for a new site.George Macculloch Miller, who had led the purchase of theCathedral of St. John the Divine's land inMorningside Heights, was interested in a partnership with St. Luke's Hospital.[12] In 1892, Miller convinced the hospital to purchase the site directly north of the cathedral, between 113th and 114th Street.[8][12] The arrangement was expected to be beneficial for both institutions. An annual report from St. Luke's lauded the proximity toMorningside Park, immediately to the east, as well as its elevated location on top of the Morningside Heights plateau.[8][18] The acquisition proved difficult, as St. Luke's had to take land from eight landowners.[18]
The building committee headed a design competition for the project,[8] in which eighty firms participated.[13] Five prominent architects —Heins & LaFarge,James Brown Lord,George Edward Harney,James Renwick Jr., andCharles W. Clinton — were offered $400 to submit designs.[13][18] Renwick and Clinton declined to enter the competition, and other architects submitted plans without receiving compensation.[18] Most of these schemes harmonized the hospital's design with theGothic Revival style of the cathedral.[18] The competition was mildly controversial: theReal Estate Record and Guide said that because competitors could not use pseudonyms, the judges could more easily identify the architects that they favored.[19] The commission was ultimately given toErnest Flagg.[20][21] His proposal was the only design that deviated significantly from the cathedral's design, as it was in theFrench Renaissance Revival style.[21] Flagg likely benefited from favoritism:[8][21][22] he had been described as a "surrogate son" ofCornelius Vanderbilt II, who was part of St. Luke's executive and building committees,[23] and had no previous design experience.[8][21] Though the building committee initially had reservations about the selection, it appointed Flagg and Charles Clinton jointly as architects for the project, with the stipulation that the committee could revise the plan at any time.[8][21]
St. Luke's began work on the project in May 1893[24][25] and sold their Fifth Avenue building the next month.[26] In the initial round of construction, five pavilions were constructed.[27][28] The project was beset by delays and disputes due to Flagg's combativeness toward suppliers: he objected to the quality of such materials as the marble, steel, and stained glass.[27][29] The hospital's trustees expressed concerns because they had promised to leave the old building by July 1894. Despite this, the trustees chose to remain within part of its Fifth Avenue campus and turn the rest over to the new owners,[30] theUnion Club of the City of New York.[31] In December 1895, the old building stopped accepting patients.[32] The following month, the first patients started moving into the new building.[30][33] Construction was not completed until late 1896.[30] The total cost of construction was $1.7 million.[27]
In its early years, St. Luke's suffered from a lack of funding, and did not have a pavilion for private patients.[34] Initially, patients were housed in two stories of the Vanderbilt Pavilion, which had been intended for nurses. Affluent patients at first avoided St. Luke's due to the lack of a private pavilion, hurting its business.[30] Furthermore, it was nominally affiliated with theEpiscopal Church despite only a minority of patients being Episcopal, thus limiting potential donors to wealthy Episcopalians.[30][35] By 1901, St. Luke's board was preparing plans for a private patients' pavilion, though such a structure could not be built until funds were provided.[35] The money for an expansion was finally provided in a donation fromMargaret J. Plant, wife of the late railroad magnateHenry B. Plant, and was announced in November 1903.[35][36] Though Flagg submitted designs for the Plant Pavilion,[35] there is insufficient evidence to determine whether he supervised the construction process.[37] After Flagg submitted plans in early 1904, work started on the Plant Pavilion in April 1904,[38][39] and after a delay caused by alabor strike,[39] it was completed in 1906.[39][37][40]
Two further additions were made afterward. The first was Travers Pavilion on 114th Street, which was built between 1908 and 1911.[37][39] A decade later, Flagg was hired to design another pavilion for private patients, the Scrymser Pavilion. Money for this pavilion was provided by communications magnateJames Alexander Scrymser, who left money for the structure in his will.[39][41] Plans for the pavilion were filed in June 1926, and construction began that October; the pavilion was completed in 1928.[37]
AfterWorld War II, numerous modern buildings were erected, and two pavilions were removed. The first structure to be built in this modern wave of development was the Clark Building along the two undeveloped plots on Amsterdam Avenue; this was designed byYork & Sawyer and built in 1952–1954.[42][43] Woman's Hospital was merged with St. Luke's Hospital in 1952, forming St. Luke's Hospital Center,[44] and the hospital center also became partially affiliated withColumbia University.[42] The Norrie and Vanderbilt Pavilions were demolished in replaced with plain brick buildings. The Norrie Pavilion was replaced with the Stuyvesant Building, designed by York & Sawyer and built in 1956–1957, while the Vanderbilt Pavilion was replaced by the Service and Research Building, built in 1966–1968 to a design by Harry M. Prince.[37][42] The observation dome on the administration building was destroyed in 1966.[37]
St. Luke's Hospital became fully affiliated with Columbia in 1971.[42] St. Luke's Hospital merged its services withRoosevelt Hospital in 1978, becoming St. Luke's–Roosevelt Hospital Center.[45] On January 9, 1997, St. Luke's–Roosevelt entered into a partnership withBeth Israel Medical Center andNew York Eye and Ear Infirmary, forming the Greater Metropolitan Health Systems, Inc. In April 1998, Greater Metropolitan Health Systems, Inc., was renamed Continuum Health Partners, Inc.[46]
The Plant and Scrymser Pavilions for Private Patients were designated by theNew York City Landmarks Preservation Commission as official city landmarks in 2002.[3][47] In 2013, Continuum Health Partners merged with Mount Sinai Medical Center to become the Mount Sinai Health System,[48] and two years later, St. Luke's Hospital became Mount Sinai St. Luke's.[49] Four of the original pavilions—Plant, Scrymser, Travers, and Minturn—were sold in 2016 and converted to a complex of 300 rental apartments. The conversion was undertaken by the architecture firmCetraRuddy.[50] In 2019, the original pavilions were listed on theNational Register of Historic Places.[51] In 2020, the hospital was renamedMount Sinai Morningside.[52][53][54][55]
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Flagg designed St. Luke's Hospital with ninepavilions: four4+1⁄2-story pavilions each on 113th and 114th Streets, respectively to the south and north, and a 6-story central administration building in the middle, facing 113th Street to the south.[27][56][57] The side streets' pavilions were designed with brick and stone facades as well asmansard roofs.[56] The plan was a continuation of previous hospital designs that had split the wings into several pavilions connected byarcades.[27][28] In St. Luke's, the arcades were elevated, with arches beneath to allow air to pass through.[58][59] Patient wards were on 113th Street, while nurses' quarters and private patients' wings were on 114th Street.[28][59] Each pavilion was designed around a central courtyard with a staircase and elevator.[59]
Ultimately, eight of Flagg's pavilions were built.[27][28] Of these, six remain, four of which are no longer part of the hospital.[42] In the final design, the board decided to move the administration building closer to the street and to remove the proposed gatehouses. Staircases were placed in the arcades between pavilions so that the individual wards could be more easily quarantined.[28] The revised plan also allowed the construction of a chapel behind the administration building.[60] When it opened, the hospital was composed of the administration building; the Minturn, Chapel, Norrie, and Vanderbilt Pavilions; an ambulance stable; and a pathology building.[27] The total patient capacity of the building was estimated at 350 persons when it was completed.[57]
The central administration building—also called the Muhlenberg Pavilion, for the hospital's founder—is set back from 113th Street.[60] It was one of the five original pavilions opened in 1896.[35] The building was topped by a dome, which rose 140 feet (43 m) and was compared to that of theLuxembourg Palace,[56][57][59] though St. Luke's dome was demolished in 1966.[37] West–east corridors ran across each floor, and elevators connected the floors, allowing sick patients to be transported more easily. As planned, the first (ground) floor was to be a lobby and offices; the second to fourth floors, a children's ward; the fifth floor, dining rooms; and the sixth floor, operating theaters.[61] An open court was placed in front of the central pavilion.[28]
The Chapel Pavilion, one of the original pavilions opened in 1896, is located on 114th Street, just north of the administration building. The pavilion was not in the initial design.[62]
Flagg designed achapel at the hospital, as well as thestained glass windows in the chapel.[63][64] As designed, a tower was to rise above the chapel.[62] The space measures 70 feet (21 m) long by 30 feet (9.1 m) wide and 34 feet (10 m) tall.[65] It was consecrated in 1896.[66]
The Travers Pavilion was built northeast of the administration building, to the east of Chapel Pavilion, in 1908–1911.[37][39] It was used foroutpatient treatment and as a female hospital staffers' dormitory.[39][50][67] It was later used for administrative offices before being converted to apartments.[50]
The Plant and Scrymser Pavilions are located onMorningside Drive, on the eastern part of the hospital site.[3] Plant, named after donor Margaret J. Plant, opened on the southeast corner of the site in 1906. Scrymser, named after donor Mary Catherine Prime Scrymser, opened on the northeast corner in 1928.[39][37] They were initially used as wings where wealthy patients could be treated separately from the rest of the hospital's patients.[3] Plant, eight stories tall, had rooms for the hospital's superintendent as well.[37][42] Scrymser, one of Flagg's final commissions in Manhattan, was nine stories tall and differed from the other pavilions, in that it contained upper terraces with loggias (rather than a mansard roof), as well as a brick facade with muted ornamentation.[42] They were converted to apartments starting in 2016.[50]
The Minturn Pavilion, one of the original pavilions opened in 1896,[35] is located on 113th Street, just southeast of the administration building.[62] Named for the hospital's founding president Robert Minturn, it initially served as a women's surgical ward.[60] It was later used for administrative offices and then converted to apartments.[50]
The Norrie Pavilion was located at the northwest corner of the site, while the Vanderbilt Pavilion was located at the southwest corner; both were west of the administration building[62] and were among the original pavilions opened in 1896.[35] The Norrie Pavilion, named after hospital treasurer Gordon Norrie was used as a men's surgical ward[60] and opened in March 1896.[68] The Vanderbilt Pavilion—named for benefactorWilliam Henry Vanderbilt, who had paid for the original building's annex—was used as staff dormitories[60] and opened in January 1896.[33] They were demolished in the 1950s.[37]
Woman's Hospital was founded byJ. Marion Sims with financial backing fromSarah Platt Doremus, who ultimately became president of the hospital.[69] From South Carolina, Sims had developed a revolutionary approach to treatingvesico-vaginal fistulas, a catastrophic complication from obstructed childbirth. The hospital was first located in a rented house atMadison Avenue and 29th Street. Thomas Addis Emmet, who served at the hospital, published the first comprehensive textbook in English ongynecology.[70]
In 1867 Woman's Hospital moved to a new location on Park Avenue, at the present site of theWaldorf Astoria New York. The location had been used as a burial ground during the 1832cholera outbreak, and 47,000 coffins were dug up to make way for the new construction.[70] In 1906 Woman's Hospital moved to 110th Street and Amsterdam; the new structure, designed by Frederick R. Allen ofAllen & Collens, was expanded in 1913.[71] Woman's Hospital was merged with St. Luke's Hospital in 1952, forming St. Luke's Hospital Center,[44] and the old Woman's Hospital building at110th Street andAmsterdam Avenue was destroyed.[42][44] Finally, in 1965, it was moved to 114th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, just across the street from St. Luke's.[70][44]
The nurses training school operated from 1888 until its last class was graduated in 1974. The school shuttered due to competition from increasingly available four-year bachelor's degree programs. It was founded byAnnie Ayres, a devotee of St. Luke's founder Muhlenberg and graduated 4,000 nurses during its 80-year run.[72][73][74][75]
