Medicine through the years New photograph book chronicles history of old JC Medical Center
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But those who are able to get a hold of the recently published book, Jersey City Medical Center (Arcadia Publishing; August 2004; 128 pp.) by Leonard F. Vernon will find those tidbits of information and more about this longtime medical institution, which closed its doors on May 16 to make way for the brand-new $200 million Jersey City Medical Center located a half-mile away on Grand Street. The old facility was built from 1928 to 1941.
Over hundreds of pages of photographs with accompanying captions chronicle the evolution of what once was the largest medical facility in the state of New Jersey, and at one time, the largest in the United States.
The facility began as the Jersey City Charity Hospital in the Paulus Hook section of Jersey City in 1868, then was relocated to the familiar site of Montgomery and Baldwin and renamed the Jersey City Hospital in 1909, and then made way for the new complex that would consist of the general hospital, Pollack Chest Diseases Hospital, Murdoch Hall, and the Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital.
But another evolution is outlined in Jersey City Medical Center, that of the crown jewel in the career of one of the powerful politicians in the history of Jersey City, that eventually ended up a hulking, decaying structure that lost its luster and fell victim to the times.
The author is Leonard F. Vernon, a Jersey City native and a practicing chiropractor. Local resident and longtime photographer Leon Yost contributed.
A massive undertaking
Vernon, who has a private chiropractor practice in Mount Laurel and resides in Voorhees, said that he was prompted to create Jersey City Medical Center when he heard two years ago that the old medical center was slated for closing because of the new one.
"When I heard the center was closing, I looked to see if there were any publications out there about the Medical Center," said Vernon. Once Vernon did research and found out that there weren't any.
The author had previously published a book detailing the history of chiropractic practice in New Jersey. He brought his experience as a historian to this project.
First, Vernon contacted Dr. Gerald Nissenbaum, longtime practitioner at the old Jersey City Medical Center who was considered the Jersey City's unofficial historian based on his vast knowledge of the medical complex. Nissenbaum helped Vernon by searching through old photographs kept in the hospital's library.
However, the project would be placed on the back burner for several months when Vernon suffered a leg injury. While he was recovering, Nissenbaum passed away, and Vernon wasn't sure if he wanted to continue. But when Vernon recovered in early 2003, he decided to take another shot at completing the project.
Completed at last
Over the next year and half until he completed his manuscript the week of the closing of the old Medical Center, Vernon would search through various archives, from the New Jersey Room of the Jersey City Public Library to the special collections department of the University of Medicine and Dentistry in Newark. Vernon said that while some of these archives were very organized, others had a less rigid filing system.
This period of time researching and trying to find rare photographs gave him a newfound appreciation for creating a historic photo book.
"People will only think it's just a picture book, but the amount of research that went into this...a more daunting vision that I imagined," said Vernon. "So much time was spent correlating photos with descriptions and making sure they were accurate."
Also, Vernon visited the hospital at six to seven times. But at first, the Medical Center didn't have time to help him since it was in the process of preparing the eventual move out of the old building.
"I convinced them of the historic value. Once that happened, they became very helpful," said Vernon. So helpful in fact that Dr. Jonathan Metsch, the president and chief executive officer of LibertyHealth (which ran the old Medical Center and now runs the new one) wrote the foreword for Jersey City Medical Center.
Vernon also credits Leon Yost, longtime Jersey City resident and photographer, for helping him by talking many of the more recent photos featured in the book, including the closing of the old medical center. Yost said recently that he got involved with the project when he met Vernon online.
"Dr. Vernon is a collector of old postcards, and I am a collector," he said. "He bought old postcards from me that I was selling on eBay and later we connected, and that's when he told me about this project on the Medical Center."
Yost would spend months visiting the closed off areas of the general hospital as well the long closed Murdoch Hall, Pollack Hospital and the Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital. What saddened Yost, as it did Vernon, were these ornate buildings that were once state-of-the-art structures, reduced over the years to gutted, abandoned shells of what they once was.
"Some of these buildings looked like a bomb hit them," Yost said. "And these buildings were created in the Art-Deco style, some with these lovely marble columns, two stories tall and the most stupendous."
'Holy Grail'
Yost also enjoyed taking part in this project because as a Jersey City history buff, he hoped to find what he called the "Holy Grail."
"It is believed that Mayor Hague had a residence in the Medical Center," said Yost, who went searching for this mythic penthouse that was believed to be located on the top floor of one of the buildings of the general hospital or the Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital, named after Hague's mother. But Yost never actually found it.
Vernon said that he enjoyed the finished product because of the immediate gratification that he experienced when family members, many of whom once lived from Jersey City but moved away.
"My aunt and uncle, after they received a copy of the book took a trip from their home in South Jersey up to Jersey City to see the Medical Center and what it looks like," said Vernon.
Vernon is planning to visit bookstores in the Jersey City area in the near future, with a possible appearance at the Jersey City Public Library to talk about his book.
The chronicling of an era
Jersey City Medical Center captures nearly 150 years of Jersey City medical history in less than 150 pages, while telling the story of one institution. In the archives and repositories that Vernon would visit, he would come across images of a seven-building complex that was a reflection of the period in which it was built as well as how medical care had been practiced in a previous era.
Photos range from the circa 1890 photograph of the mansion that was once the location of the Jersey City Hospital, or the photo taken on the last day of operation for the old Medical Center in May of the once-formidable complex shrinking in the distance as ambulances waited to transport patients to the new building.
Readers will be elated to see photos of the marble interiors of a Murdoch Hall, where the nurses were once trained, and the florid engravings on the exteriors of the buildings.
Many will be shocked by such images as of the laboratory in the medical school where animals were kept for experiments, and the amphitheater where medical residents viewed surgeries being performed.
And a number of those looking through the book will be saddened by the sight of the ultimate deterioration of these Medical Center buildings, especially the famous Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital, with its walls stripped of its electrical wiring by vandals, with crumbling tiles and broken windows.
Hague gets a chapter
A chapter is devoted to Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague, the "Boss" of local and state politics, who reigned while the complex that was built for several million dollars during the Depression. It stood for 70 years. As written in the book, "During the Hague years, it is said that the hospital cost $3 million to operate annually but brought in less than $1,500 in payments" - a testament to the vision that Hague had to provide the poor with the best medical care in the best facility, no expense spared.
But the book, most of all, is a paperback time-capsule that preserves the place - a place that at the present time is being renovated for market-rate housing by the developers, Metrovest Equities based in New York City.
George Filopoulos, the president of the Metrovest Equities, plans to convert the buildings into 1,200 apartments and condominiums. Included will be a preschool, an art and music center, a library, and a Medical Center museum. Three medical center structures are to be razed for a garage.
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