University City

PGH completed Blockley Hall, a 16-story residence hall for its nursing students, in 1964. This photo shows the building in 1967, seven years before PGH’s closing. The University of Pennsylvania trustees purchased Blockley Hall from the City in 1985. Located at 423 Guardian Avenue, The building today is used by the Perelman School of Medicine for offices and work spaces. 

Christmas treats for young patients at PGH.

The hard living experienced by impoverished African American women necessitated major adjustments on the hospital’s part. Responding to the high incidence of premature births, which were linked to poor nutrition, pre-natal cigarette and alcohol use, problems with sanitation, and high levels of stress, the hospital operated six nurseries for premature babies. The photo shows one of these nurseries in 1956.

This aerial photo shows the PGH complex in 1954. The Charles K. Mills Neurological Building stands in the foreground, located at the southwestern end of the hospital complex.  

Charles K. Mills Neurological Building in 1952. This building straddled the corner of Civic Center Boulevard and University Avenue, at the southwestern end of the PGH complex. 

This photo from 1934 shows the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) in the left-to-right foreground as it spreads out along 34th Street near that street’s intersection with Spruce Street, standing opposite the University Museum of Archeology and Anthropology. The white horizontal building marks the divide between HUP and the Philadelphia General Hospital (PGH, center left).  

PGH Women’s Surgical Building in 1925

PGH Newly built operating room building shown here in 1920.

PGH Maternity Building Under Construction in 1920

PGH Main Administration Building