Columbia Hospital for Women
Columbia Hospital for Women closed in May, 2002 after 136 years in operation. It was at this time that the hospital administration gave me unfettered access to photograph inside the Hospital. To my knowledge, my photographs are the only ones in existence that document the hospital's final days.
Columbia Hospital for Women was originally created as a treatment center for women, many recently widowed, during the years just after the civil war. Starting in 1870, the hospital dedicated itself mainly in the areas of obstetrics and gynecology. Over the years of its operation, the hospital delivered 275,000 babies.
As a small, non-profit with a narrow specialty, the hospital faced mounting financial problems. Faced with a growing demand for its services and coupled with the rising cost of treatment, insurance reimbursements were not enough to keep it solvent. As a result, Columbia declared bankruptcy in 1998. It existed on loans for a brief period leading up to it's closing in 2002.
With the staff largely gone, walking through the hospital was an unsettling experience. Despite the absence of people, most of the rooms were still furnished, yet there existed everywhere evidence of the staff's sudden departure. My original intent was to document the hospital's physical spaces as they appeared to me. Instead, I chronicled the final days of a long lived Washington DC institution.
