National Jewish Medical and Research Center

National Jewish Health
National Jewish Health, circa 1920.
Geography
Location	1400 Jackson Street, Denver, Colorado, United States
Coordinates	39°44′21″N 104°56′32″W / 39.73914°N 104.9421°W / 39.73914; -104.9421Coordinates: 39°44′21″N 104°56′32″W / 39.73914°N 104.9421°W / 39.73914; -104.9421
Organization
Care system	Private, non-profit
Hospital type	Specialist
Affiliated university	University of Colorado Denver
Services
Emergency department	N/A
Beds	46
Speciality	see text
History
Founded	1899
Links
Website	www.nationaljewish.org
Lists	Hospitals in Colorado

National Jewish Health is an academic medical research facility located in Denver, Colorado specializing in respiratory, cardiac, immune and allergic disorders. It was founded in 1899 to treat tuberculosis. It is a non-sectarian institution but received funding from B'nai B'rith until the 1950s.

Today, clinical functions at National Jewish include research, diagnosis, and ambulatory outpatient care.

By the late 19th century, Colorado and the American Southwest had become famous for the health benefits of a dry, sunny climate. At that time, the only known treatment for tuberculosis (TB) was clean air and sunshine and hundreds of people with tuberculosis descended upon Denver in hopes of finding a miracle cure for what was then the nation’s leading cause of death. Consequently, many TB sufferers spent their last dollars coming to Colorado. By the 1890s, it was estimated that one out of every three residents of the state was there for respiratory reasons. However, no facilities existed to provide treatment or shelter to these victims. In Denver, victims of TB were literally dying in the streets as boarding houses often banned "lungers," as they were called.

It was obvious that the Denver community at large was not sympathetic to the plight of needy TB sufferers, and many argued that "we can’t blacken the name of the city" by making it a TB . Frances Wisebart Jacobs, known as "Mother of Charities", recognized the need for a TB hospital. After joining forces with a young rabbi, William Sterne Friedman, the two raised enough money to buy some land and erect a building, and the laying of the hospital’s cornerstone on October 9, 1892 drew huge crowds. The original hospital was completed in 1893 and was to be named the Francis Wisebart Jacobs Hospital after its founder. Unfortunately, due to the combination of the "Silver Crisis of 1893" and a national depression, the hospital did not open and it sat vacant for six years until William Sterne Friedman approached B'nai B'rith, a national Jewish organization, and persuaded them to raise the required operating funds on an annual basis. When the hospital opened on December 10, 1899, it had a new name; National Jewish Hospital for Treatment of Consumptives (consumption is an old name for TB that describes how the highly contagious illness wastes away or consumes its victims). B'nai B'rith continued to support the hospital until the early 1950s.