OPD Pediatrics Clinic, 1960s

Bellevue’s OPD (Outpatient Department) was housed in a massive brick building, erected c.1910. The building was designed according to the Florence Nightingale Plan, which stipulated large windows and high ceilings so that there would be maximum flow of fresh air to prevent disease. A side effect was abundant natural light, a boon to photographers. The OPD was teeming with patients; signs were in 7 different languages, reflecting a diverse patient population. Then, as now, children in the OPD were routinely seen by residents on rotation and supervised by attending physicians. By 1973, all outpatient services were relocated to the new Bellevue Hospital tower (and in 2005 moved to a new Ambulatory Care Center, which was established in a glass-enclosed atrium built around the historic 1930s granite and brick facade designed by McKim, Mead & White). The OPD was razed in 1975, and replaced by the garden that now graces the entrance to Bellevue Hospital.