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Marsha F. Goldsmith

JAMA. 2001;285:2313-2316.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Philadelphia—On a full city block in Society Hill, a short walk from Independence Hall, surrounded by azaleas and wisteria and overseen by a statue of state founder William Penn, sits the original Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in this country. Established on May 11, 1751, by a charter granted by the Pennsylvania legislature through the efforts of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Bond, MD, the hospital this week celebrates 250 years of caring for the community.

Pennsylvania Hospital at the start of the 19th century enjoyed a bucolic setting, as depicted here by famous Philadelphia printmaker Thomas Birch. The brick wall, built to protect the "lunaticks" from the curious public, helped preserve the pristine grounds that surround the Pine Building today. (Credit: Pennsylvania Hospital Archives)

Originally intended to be a place of refuge and cure for "the sick-poor and insane" of what was by 1776 the second . . . [Full Text of this Article]