Otis House

The Growth of the Medical Community

The Ether Dome at Massachusetts General Hospital

 

Founded in 1799, trustee records indicate that Massachusetts General Hospital was chartered in 1811 and that by 1813 the search had begun to locate a suitable site for the fledgling institution. After considering sites at the foot of the Boston Common and another in Roxbury, a site in the West End was chosen in 1817 for its ability to provide the healthy benefits of good ventilation and natural light. The first MGH building was designed by architect Charles Bulfinch, and the operating theater, which had seating for observation beneath a sky-lit dome, became distinguished in 1856 as the place in which the first extensive surgical operation upon a patient under the influence of ether was successfully performed. By the mid-nineteenth century, the Harvard Medical School moved to North Grove Street in the West End,  a new building to house the Massachusetts Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary was erected at the corner of Charles and Cambridge Streets, and The Mount Sinai Hospital (later to become Beth Israel) was located on Chambers Street.