Records are closed for 50 years from date of creation; Trustee files are restricted. For access to records less than 50 years old, researchers must obtain permission from the Office of the Corporate Secretary, New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
Records created or held in custody by the Office of the Secretary of Presbyterian Hospital. Included are correspondence and subject files; records of agreements with Columbia University and with other hospitals, especially Babies Hospital and the Neurological Institute of NY; contracts with vendors and unions; real estate records including agreements, contracts, deeds, property maps, leases, and mortgage satisfactions; records of Trustees and Corporation Members; and records of the Joint Administrative Board, the joint Columbia University-Presbyterian Hospital agency that oversaw the construction of the Medical Center in 1925-1929
History and Biography
Presbyterian Hospital was established in 1868 through the efforts of Robert Lenox, philanthropist and book collector, and opened in 1872 on the block bounded by 70th and 71st Streets and Madison and Park Avenues. It entered into an “Agreement of Alliance” in 1911 with Columbia University by which it became the primary teaching hospital of the College of Physicians & Surgeons, the University’s medical school. Presbyterian and Columbia jointly constructed a new campus in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood which opened in 1928 and was called the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.
The offices of recording secretary and corresponding secretary were established by the hospital’s 1868 charter. The by-laws of that year specify that the recording secretary “shall keep the minutes of the proceedings of the Board of Managers” and noted that the office was responsible for preserving “all the records and papers which do not belong to the office of the Treasurer.”
Both secretaries were members of the Hospital’s Board of Managers (called the Board of Trustees after October 1945). However, by the mid-20th century the amount of hospital business had grown too large for a part-time board member and most of the work of the office was handled by a full-time paid assistant secretary, who often served as assistant treasurer as well. Besides keeping the minutes and dealing with board members, the Secretary’s Office oversaw the hospital’s growing and increasingly complex legal, personnel, and real estate affairs.
With the merger of Presbyterian Hospital and New York Hospital on Dec. 31, 1997 to form New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Presbyterian’s Office of the Secretary was superseded by that of the new corporation.
Organization
Organized in thirteen series:
I. Correspondence and Subject Files
II. Trustees and Corporation Members
III. Agreements with Columbia University and Other Hospitals
IV. Vendor Contracts
V. Union Contracts
VI. Real Estate
VII. Leases
VIII. Joint Administrative Board, Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center
IX. Women’s Auxiliaries
X. Deposit #2018.013
XI. Deposit #2018.023
XII. Deposit #2020.001
XIII. Deposit #2020.007
Records created or held in custody by the Office of the Secretary of Presbyterian Hospital. Records span the entire existence of Presbyterian Hospital, 1868-1997, but the majority date from 1925-1975. Included are correspondence and subject files; records of agreements with Columbia University and with other hospitals; contracts with vendors and unions; bills paid, mostly relating to the furnishing of the hospital after the fire of 1889; real estate records including agreements, contracts, deeds, property maps, leases, and mortgage satisfactions; records of Trustees and Corporation Members; and records of the Joint Administrative Board, the joint Columbia University-Presbyterian Hospital agency that oversaw the construction of the Medical Center in 1925-1929.
Many of the records are concerned with agreements Presbyterian entered into with other institutions, especially with Columbia University. Since the initial 1911 agreement with Columbia was revised and renewed several times during the 20th century, these records are particularly important for documenting the often contentious relationship between the two Medical Center partners. Construction records, pertaining to both the original Medical Center in the 1920s and to subsequent expansions and renovations, are also voluminous. However, there is very little after 1975 and nothing on the building of the Milstein Hospital Building and Allen Pavilion in the 1980s.
Records of Trustees and Corporation Members vary considerably: most contain only a resume but a few also include correspondence, newspaper clippings, obituaries, and memorial statements.
Real estate records include material on Medical Center property and buildings, especially the Neurological Institute and Eye Institute buildings, but the bulk document residential buildings purchased by Presbyterian either for staff housing or for office space. Leases are entirely for apartments in non-hospital buildings rented by Presbyterian to provide staff housing.
The Joint Administrative Board (JAB) records were presumably inherited by the Secretary’s Office after the JAB became defunct in the 1970s. The records here almost all refer to the planning and the construction of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, 1922-1929. Included are contracts with the architect, James Gamble Rogers, and the contractor, Marc Eidlitz and Son; agreements and other documents relating to the construction of the New York State Psychiatric Institute in 1924-29; Edward Harkness’s original deed to the property; budgets; and contracts with utilities.
The 2020 accessions are largely records of off-shoot corporations of Presbyterian Hospital, which were subsequently dissolved after the 1997 merger with New York Hospital. One exception to this are the color slides taken of hospital artworks (generally portraits) taken in 1987. The corporation records usually include incorporation and dissolution papers; by-laws; and occasionally minutes.
The 2009 document relates to the dissolution of Columbia-Presbyterian Health Services, Inc., established in 1994.
Subject Headings and Related Records
Administrative Information
On deposit from the Office of the Corporate Secretary, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, March 2009. Further deposits, 2018, 2020.
Processed and arranged by Stephen E. Novak, April 2012; further processing, 2018-2022.