Rush University Medical Center Archives

Brief History of ST. LUKE'S HOSPITAL:

• 1864: St. Luke's Hospital, Chicago, Ill., was founded when Rev. Clinton Locke, rector of Grace Episcopal Church, used a sermon to call for 'a place where the sick poor might be cared for'. Members of the Camp Douglas Ladies Aid Society, who cared for Confederate prisoners of war in Chicago, sat among the congregation that day. They approached Rev. Locke to propose that he head a church hospital, and he accepted. St. Luke's Hospital started with a seven bed hospital and within a few months moved to an 18-bed facility.
• 1865: St. Luke's Hospital was officially incorporated in 1865.
• 1871: In May of 1871 the hospital moved to a 25-bed building on South Indiana Avenue near 14th Street. Five months later, the building survived the Great Chicago Fire.
• 1885: St. Luke's constructed a new 65-bed building on South Indiana Avenue near 14th Street. That same year, the hospital founded the St. Luke's Hospital Training School for Nurses, also known as the St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing.
• 1940s: St. Luke's Hospital faced a variety of problems in the years following World War II. The Hospital lacked the prestige and stability of a university affiliation. Furthermore, the institution fell into financial difficulty as the surrounding community experienced socioeconomic decline.
• 1950s: By the early 1950s, the hospital faced the decision of whether to remain at its present location or move to a different site.
• 1956-1959: The St. Luke's Board of Trustees considered a variety of options before they decided to move to Chicago's West Side and merge with Presbyterian Hospital to become Presbyterian-St. Luke's Hospital. The two boards approved this action on February 10th, 1956, and St. Luke's Hospital closed its doors on June 26, 1959.

Brief History of the ST. LUKE'S HOSPITAL SCHOOL OF NURSING

• 1864: St. Luke's Hospital was founded.
• 1885: The hospital founded the Training School for Nurses, also known as the St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing. In
• 1956: St. Luke's Hospital merged with Presbyterian Hospital to create Presbyterian-St. Luke's Hospital, located on Chicago's West Side. The nursing schools merged at that time, also, to become Presbyterian-St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing.

Several items from the St. Luke's Hospital Records, #4704, and St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing Records, #4765, have been digitized and are available online.

• Personal Reminiscences of the Diocese of Illinois, 1856-1892 (A history of St. Luke's Hospital by the founder of St. Luke's, Rev. James DeWitt Clinton Locke.)
• Annual Reports of St. Luke's Hospital
• St. Luke's News, hospital newsletter 
• The History of the St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing, 1946, by Marie Georgetta Merrill
• Yearbooks, St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing
• Annual Announcements, St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing
• The Alumnae Newsletter, St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing
• Woman's Board Fashion Show scrapbooks and posters. A selection of material related to the annual Fashion Show fundraiser hosted by the Woman's Board of RUSH University Medical Center. This Fashion Show was a notable Chicago event for ninety years, beginning in 1927, when it was first organized by the Ladies' Aid Society of St. Luke's Hospital, a RUSH predecessor.

More St. Luke's Hospital resources:

• Explore the Personal Papers of many individuals related to St. Luke's Hospital. Click on the "Personal Papers" tab above for more information.
• A selection of photographs related to St. Luke's Hospital and its nursing school can be found in our Flickr collection.
• Another useful resource: History of Medicine and Surgery and Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago, 1922, includes photographs, biographies and histories.