The New England Hospital for Women and Children
This hospital was first housed in a dwelling house on Pleasant Street further along than the rear houses here seen (1862-1864). This was soon outgrown in favor of the one front and three rear houses here shown or indicated (1864-1872).
This professional loneliness must have been peculiarly poignant to her, since it contrasted so painfully with her recollections of the cordial fellowship which she had enjoyed with Dr. Schmidt and other leading medical men in Berlin.
An appeal issued by the directors in June, 1864, asking for funds for the purchase of the new buildings, contains a letter by Dr. Horatio R. Storer giving cogent reasons for the desirability of a special hospital for women and noting the particular conditions which made the New England Hospital peculiarly suitable for such purpose. This appeal was signed also by Drs. Walter Channing, C. G. Putnam, Henry I. Bowditch, and S. Cabot.
And about this time, Dr. Walter Channing writes to Dr. Zakrzewska:
I regret I had not made my visit later as I was too early to have the pleasure of seeing you. I was desirous to do so to express to you my entire satisfaction in regard to the operation you performed the evening before. It was a very difficult operation and was done under circumstances most unpromising of success. I do not think it could have been done better.
I write also to say that if at any time I can do anything to aid you in the performance of your important duties, I shall be always ready and happy to do so.
Very respectfully & truly yrs.,
Walter Channing.
Boston, 39 Mt. Vernon Street,
June 2, 1864.
Remembering the financial difficulties of both Dr. Zakrzewska herself and this young, struggling enterprise of hers, one may well wonder at the second annual report (1863-1864) stating:
Half of our beds are always filled by patients who pay nothing, and the resident physician has the right to receive at half price those whose circumstances require this indulgence.
And realizing how the prices of the necessities of life must have advanced with the continuance of the Civil War, one is not surprised to read elsewhere:
We have been reluctantly forced to double our price of board, placing it at eight dollars per week.