Vassar Brothers School of Nursing

A 1-2 Vassar Brothers School of Nursing - Brewery Connection

Ruth graduated from the Vassar Brothers School of Nursing program in 1950.  Following includes an account of how beer becomes responsible for the construction of a Hospital and then the creation the school she attended.

The Vassar Family emigrated from England to America in 1796 and established a farm in the Poughkeepsie area, overlooking the Hudson River. James Vassar made the transition from farming to running family businesses in the early 1800's, founding a brickyard on their property and soon thereafter starting a brewery operation. He and his wife had two sons who grew up in the family businesses.

Matthew, the eldest brother, was born in 1809 and became the business manager. In the 1850s he left for a tour of Europe to visit family. While in England, he went to Guy's Hospital, founded by his relative, Sir Thomas Guy. This renowned and innovative institution was the initial inspiration for a hospital. Although he carried back with him a vision for a hospital here, his close friend and educator, Milo P. Jewett, and his niece convinced him instead to found an all-women's college. Setting aside his vision, he chose instead to endow Vassar College.

John Guy, the younger brother, was also involved in their local businesses. He married and they had two sons, Matthew and John Guy. Unfortunately, his wife died giving birth to their second son. Overcome with grief, he left his sons in the care of his brother while he traveled around the world. Tragedy struck again when a fire significantly burned the brewery. Two days later, John Guy returned from traveling and entered the brewery to try to salvage what he could. He was overcome by fumes, suffocated and died, leaving his two sons to be raised by their Uncle Matthew.

By tradition, John Guy had named his first-born son after his brother and his second son after himself. Uncle Matthew adopted the two boys and Matthew became Matthew, Jr. He proved to be an astute businessman and learned well from his uncle - Vassar Ale, housed in a re-located and refurbished brewery, became very profitable under his management. Because of respiratory illness John Guy, following in his father's footsteps, traveled around the world, leaving the management of the brick and ale businesses to his brother. He often wrote letters with detailed instructions for investing his share of the businesses, and ended up the wealthier of the two.

Matthew Jr. was both a businessman and a philanthropist solely dedicated to the City of Poughkeepsie. In addition to serving as a trustee and treasurer of Vassar College, he was a significant supporter of many institutions, including the Vassar Home for Aged Men. Remembering his uncle's vision, he left money in his will for the establishment of something even grander - a hospital.

Written in his own handwriting, the will instructs his executors to "...As soon as possible after my decease, cause a hospital to be incorporated, to be called Vassar Hospital and to be located in the City of Poughkeepsie and to be used as a hospital for the sick, maimed and injured persons." Total cost of the project was not to exceed $75,000. He added a clause that if his brother wanted to join in the endowment, the institution's name should be changed to "Vassar Brothers Hospital". Upon his brother's death in 1881, John Guy gave considerable endowment money for the hospital and in 1882 the institution was incorporated under the name we still use in part today - Vassar Brothers Hospital.

Matthew Jr.'s widow, Irene Beech Vassar, was inspired by the influence of Florence Nightingale, a well-known reformist nurse in Great Britain. Mrs. Vassar set out to find a location for the hospital and chose this piece of property on what was then the outskirts of the city. The 14-acre property had a perfect view of the river, pleasant grounds and therapeutic breezes - perfect for patients and their recovery. The cornerstone was laid on September 4, 1884, with construction continuing for three years. The main building component was, of course, Vassar bricks.

Vassar Brothers Hospital opened its doors on April 11, 1887 with four wards of 10 beds, a labor and delivery ward, a nursery, a children's ward, three private rooms and two isolation rooms. In the first year of operation, 80 patients were admitted. The first building added was a barn to house the horses ridden by the doctors.

Vassar Brothers trustees appointed Dr. Guy Carleton Bayley, a surgeon and friend of the Vassar family, as the first superintendent. His salary was stated at $2,000 per year. The 14 consulting physicians included one woman, Elizabeth H. Gerow, MD.

The million-dollar endowment left by the Vassars meant that no patient had to pay initially for hospitalization, but those who could, paid the full rate of $3.00 per day. The first ambulance was purchased in 1887 for $580 and included "brakes and lamps, but no gong." By 1913, over 1,200 patients had received treatment.

Within a decade, other buildings were erected onsite. "Home I" was originally built as a library and laboratory but was then converted into a residence and meeting hall for student nurses. "Home II" was built for the superintendent and then converted into housing for married interns and hospital personnel. Laundry, boiler, smokestack and grounds-keeping buildings were added around the turn of the 19th Century.

A huge addition was added upon completion of a major one-year fund-raising campaign and opened for patients in 1924, with modern operating rooms, more up-to-date patient care rooms and an x-ray department. Beautiful in its architecture, the Mary Tower building was erected in 1934 as an on-campus home for nursing school instructors, house physicians, the director of nursing and nursing students. Both Home I and Home II succumbed to age and were torn down. As time went on into the 20th Century, various sections of the old hospital were also torn down to make way for the new. No part of the original hospital stands today - the oldest section, which can be seen to the right when walking through the main lobby, is part of the 1920's addition.

Community Circle was built in 1959 with a very innovative design for patient care - circular patient care units with a centralized nursing station. It was so successful that nine years later, in 1968, South Circle was built using the same architectural concept and, not incidentally, built debt-free. The Radiation Therapy Center opened in 1974, the first center of its kind to offer a full range of cancer treatments in a five-county area. With the closure of maternity services at St. Francis, Vassar in 1975 expanded delivery room services and added a special care nursery for high-risk infants. In 1977, Vassar began using the region's first head and full-body CAT scanner.

New emergency and critical care areas were added in 1983, along with some much-needed renovations throughout the hospital. The West Wing, completed in 1999, houses a state-of-the-art operating room suite and a beautiful labor and delivery unit with private rooms overlooking the Hudson River. The Dyson Center for Cancer care opened its doors in December of 2001, offering a complete line of services to cancer patients. In June of 2002, the institution made the historic decision to change the name from Vassar Brothers Hospital to Vassar Brothers Medical Center - a melding of the tradition of the founding brothers with the expanded regional outreach of today's healthcare services.

School of Nursing
Vassar's nursing school graduated its first nurses in October of 1890, offering girls from poor families an opportunity - room, board, uniform dresses and career training were all provided to them. Student nurses were enrolled in a three-year program and were housed on campus. They received both classroom instruction and on-the-job training. In the first years of the program, nurses prepared and served all of the meals, cut fresh flowers for patients and gave round the clock care in 12-hour shifts.

In 1949, the Joseph Tower building opened for the nursing school. This building was made possible by a generous donation from Joseph and Mary Tower, who had previously donated to the construction of the Mary Tower building located on the opposite side of campus. The nursing school remained on campus until the program was handed over to the local community college in 1972.

A display of nursing memorabilia is located in the lobby of the Joseph Tower building, and displays of a graduate nursing uniform and a student nursing uniform are located on either side of the glass doors in the Community Circle elevator lobby. Historical photographs are part of a special exhibit on display in our Heritage Hall on the first floor of the Medical Center.