Satterlee Hospital

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Satterlee U.S.A. General Hospital was one of largest and most complete Union Army hospitals during the Civil War, from 1862 to 1865. It was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Founded in 1862 by an order of Surgeon-General William Alexander Hammond, the hospital was built in the sparsely developed West Philadelphia neighborhood near the intersection of 42nd Street and Baltimore Avenue and ran north to 45th and Pine Streets. It the second largest hospital in the country with 21 wood-frame wards and hundreds of tents containing 4,500 beds and covering fifteen acres. In addition to the medical facilities, the hospital also featured a library and reading room, barber shop and a printing office that printed the hospital’s newspaper, The Hospital Register.

Commanded by Dr. Isaac Israel Hayes, Surgeon, C.S.V. and famed arctic explorer, nursing was carried out by the Sisters of Charity, who lived in a convent on the grounds.

By May 1864, Satterlee had treated more than 12,000 patients and suffered only 260 deaths, a remarkable accomplishment considering the sanitary conditions of the day.

Following the war, the hospital was closed and the buildings razed. In the 1890's the site was extensively developed into residential housing. The lower portion of the hospital grounds survive today as Clark Park.