West Penn Hospital Clinics
By 1898 the medical college had also their own Emma Kaufmann Clinic next door and the newly acquired Reineman Maternity Hospital on Millvale Ave to practice. However, the ties to the West Penn Hospital go to the beginning of the medical school. The Western Pennsylvania Medical College building was conveniently located across from the hospital. The building was connected to the West Penn Hospital by the underground tunnel, which made taking clinics at the hospital very convenient for the students. Serving the poor was in the hospital’s mission. Obtaining funds to be able to fulfill that goal was at times difficult, and the Hospital sometimes was understaffed. Having students at hand was mutually beneficial. Students had plenty of opportunities to practice under the supervision of seasoned doctors and understaffed doctors had help to attend to the needs of all patients.
On the left above: West Penn Hospital around 1873
On the left below: Composite map created from the fragments of plates 9 and 10 from G.M. Hopkins & Co. maps of Pittsburgh, 1889
Neither the hospital or college buildings survived. Only the Emma Kaufmann Clinic building is still standing. Today, the original hospital’s location is occupied by the West Penn Field and Park (Polish Hill). Across from it, the site where the Western Pennsylvania Medical College stood on top of the hill at the corner of the Brereton and 30th Streets, is a church parking lot obscured by the line of trees and barely visible from the street level.
