Jews’ Hospital in the City of New York (later Mount Sinai), sketch ca. 1866.

The hospital that would become Mount Sinai opened on June 5, 1855, in a townhouse on West 28th Street. As its original name suggests, Jews’ Hospital served the needs of Jewish patients — and employed Jewish doctors — at a time when other hospitals in the city refused service. Non-Jewish patients were admitted in cases of emergency, as were Union soldiers wounded in the Civil War.

In 1866, hospital directors adopted the new name Mount Sinai, signaling that patients of all backgrounds were welcome. In the early 1870s, the hospital moved to a new and larger facility at Lexington Avenue and 66th Street.