Hall-Wilson Laboratory (1922)

Last week the Hartford Courant published a story about Hartford Hospital‘s plan to demolish the century-old Hall-Wilson Laboratory to expand its electrical power plant, a move opposed by preservationists. I found two Hartford Courant articles about the building at the time of its construction and its dedication.

The first story, from May 29, 1921, is titled “Large New Laboratory Building Planned for Hartford Hospital”:

Work will be started on the Hall-Wilson laboratory building, a three-story brown stone structure, a gift to the Hartford Hospital by Mrs. John C. Wilson, in memory or her father, mother and husband, It will be located on the east side of the main group of hospital buildings and connected to them by a corridor leading from Ward 10. The building will face east, with the Main entrance on Retreat avenue, and the greatest of care has been taken in formulating plans for it. Leading architects specializing along this line of work In Boston, New York and at Yale have been consulted in an effort to have the building represent the latest and best in this line of construction.

The doors will be of plate glass covered with heavy wrought iron monogramed grill. Just inside the main entrance will be a memorial bronze tablet, the product of the Gorham Company of New York. On the east side of the first floor, will he four large rooms devoted to the pathological laboratory, surgical pathology and chemistry. These laboratories will be furnished with all the latest equipment and devices. On the west side of the first floor will be a vault, the temperature or which will be kept at about 38 degrees Fahrenheit by automatic refrigerating machinery located in the basement directly under the vault. This machinery will also be used to refrigerate the ice boxes throughout the building.

Adjoining the vault will be the autopsy room, which will be twenty-three by fourteen feet and supplied with all the modern devices used for this purpose. Next to this will be a room for pathological records and the corner room completing the floor will be used as a library.

The second floor on the west side will be used as a Wassermann laboratory, media room, supply room and three private laboratories. The arrangement of the east side will be much the same as the first floor but will be devoted to serology, bacteriology and blood chemistry.

The third floor will be used as a museum[,] for storage and experimental animals. The building will be Connecticut brown stone, with slate roof, and fireproof throughout. Carl Malmfeldt is the architect and the Porteus & Walker Co., the building contractors.

The second article, from June 27, 1922, reported on the building’s dedication ceremony:

Dedicatory exercises of the Hall-Wilson Laboratory of the Hartford Hospital were held on the lawn in front of the new structure yesterday afternoon. The building was presented to the hospital on behalf of Mrs. John Cincinnatus Wilson, the donor, by Dr. William Dennison Morgan. The speech of acceptance being made by Colonel Louis R. Cheney, president of the board of trustees. The formal dedication of the new brown-stone laboratory was made by Rt. Rev. Charles E. Woodcock, bishop of Kentucky.

A large gathering of prominent people throughout the city were present at the exercises which were followed by an inspection of the new building by the guests. The laboratory is the gift of Mrs. john Cincinnatus Wilson in memory of John Henry Hall, Sarah Garrett Loines and John C. Wilson.

Dr. Morgan in a very brief speech of presentation characterized the structure as “a tabernacle enshrining a soul. A directing intelligence searching into the mysteries of life and death regardless of either race or creed.”

Colonel Cheney in accepting the building on behalf of the hospital said that for many years the hospital has been forced to use one room for their laboratory work. During the past year in this room, 5,728 examinations have been made. Only a certain group of experiments have been possible in these cramped facilities though, he said, and a large number of their examinations and investigations have been made in the state laboratory in New Haven.

Now, however, every conceivable kind of experiment and investigation can be continued and arrangements are already being made to secure a full time pathologist to take charge of the work in the new building. This new addition to the hospital will place it among the best equipped hospitals in the country, according to Colonel Cheney

Colonel Cheney closed his acceptance address by paying tribute to the doctors and nurses and thanking Mrs. Wilson for the gift to the hospital. “No better gift could be made than such as this and it is the heartiest expectation of the board that Mrs. Wilson may live to see the great good it will do.”

Bishop Woodcock opened his dedicatory address with “I now and hereby dedicate this building to the loving memory of J. H. Hall, Sarah Garrett Liones [sic], and John C. Wilson.” After outlining the great good the building will do he said, “we have come here to dedicate this memorial to those who we delight to honor, As we do this let us remember two things. It stands for the benefaction of those to whom it is dedicated and is entrusted to skilled and capable men. It further stands for an appreciation which will speak where words would perish and be forgotten.[“]

The memorial tablet was unveiled by Miss Grace Jean Wilson and Master John Cinncinatus Wilson, daughter and son of Mrs. John C. Wilson, the donor.