Located in Chicago and under control of the Commissioners of Cook County. It was originally erected by the City of Chicago, at a cost of 880,000, and was intended to be used as a hospital for patients suffering from infectious diseases. For several years the building was unoccupied, but, in 1858, it was leased by an association of physicians, who opened a hospital, with the further purpose of affording facilities for clinical instruction to the students of Rush Medical College.

In 1863 the building was taken by the General Government for military purposes, being used as an eye and ear hospital for returning soldiers. In 1865 it reverted to the City of Chicago, and, in 1866, was purchased by Cook County.

In 1874 the County Commissioners purchased a new and more spacious site at a cost of $145,000, and began the erection of buildings thereon. The two principal pavilions were completed and occupied before the close of 1875; the clinical amphitheater and connecting corridors were built in 1876-77, and an administrative building and two additional pavilions were added in 1882-84. Up to that date the total cost of the buildings had been $719,574, and later additions and improvements have swelled the outlay to more than $1,000,000.

It accommodates about 800 patients and constitutes a part of the county machinery for the care of the poor. A certain number of beds are placed under the care of homeopathic physicians.

The Cook County Hospital two-block-long structure, dating to 1913-16, was designed by Paul Gerhardt and Richard Schmidt. In addition to its impressive Beaux Arts-style façade, with three-story, fluted Ionic columns, the building’s history includes numerous medical advancements, including the first blood bank, indigent care, and modern emergency room procedures. A quote from Pasteur is inscribed on the hospital's stone wall; "One doesn't ask of one who suffers: What is your country and what is your religion? One merely says, You suffer. That is enough for me. You belong to me and I shall help you."
 

Once the nation's largest public hospital and surrounded by poor neighborhoods, Cook County Hospital now stands conspicuously in the middle of the 560-acre Illinois Medical District campus of gleaming medical research laboratories, four hospitals, and two universities.


The 1910's-era Beaux-Arts-style landmark, designed by Paul Gerhardt and Richard Schmidt, stands empty and motionless on Harrison Street, slowly recovering from nearly 90 years of intense service but still seeming to call out for rededication to its original purpose. Replaced by a mediocre (now awful) new county hospital building in 2002, the old hospital visually embodies all of the characteristics of public architecture that are so refreshing to an age in which health care has drifted into commodity status and the design of public buildings crudely mirrors the already-crude design of private buildings.