Peeter A. Poldre - Sunnybrook Hospital: Our Veterans Legacy of Care, a Photo Journey Through the Decades

Our VeteransLegacy of Care, a Photographic Journey Through the Decades DR. PEETER A. POLDRE, EDITOR Copyright Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, 2011 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright. Poldre. Poldre.

ISBN 978-1-55488-943-3 1. Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre--History. 2. Sunnybrook Health Science Centre--Pictorial works. 3. 4. 4.

Veterans hospitals--Ontario--Toronto--Pictorial works. I. Title. RA983.T62S86 2011362.1109713541C2010-907736-9 123451514131211 We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and Livres Canada Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation. Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. J. J.

Kirk Howard, President Printed and bound in Canada. www.dundurn.com Dundurn 3 Church Street, Suite 500 Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5E1M2 Gazellebook Services Limited White Cross Mills High Town, Lancaster, England LAI 4XS Dundurn 2250 Military Road Tonawanda, NY U.S.A. 14150 This book is dedicated to the war veterans at Sunnybrook, for whom the hospital was built, and to the caregivers professional staff, volunteers, learners who have honoured the contributions of our veterans by creating a legacy of internationally renowned patient care, education, and research. The generosity of the Raab family has made it possible for us to share our veterans legacy of care.

T HE HISTORY OF SUNNYBROOK HOSPITAL begins with two unrelated events early in the twentieth century. In 1909, Joseph Kilgour, President of the Canada Paper Company, established one of Bayview Avenues first country estates, south of Lawrence Avenue.

He and his wife, Alice, named it Sunnybrook Farm. After Kilgours death in 1928, the 178-acre property was donated to the city of Toronto by Alice, in memory of her husband. The intention was to retain it as parkland. In 1919, to serve the needs of Canadas veterans returning from the Great War, the Toronto (Dominion) Military Orthopaedic Hospital was established on Christie Street, near Dupont Avenue, in a building that had formerly housed the National Cash Register Company. In 1936, the hospital was formally renamed the Christie Street Veterans Hospital. As wounded veterans began returning from the Second World War there was significant public concern about the facilities on Christie Street.

By 1942, the Greater Toronto Veterans Hospital Committee (chaired by the Honourable W.J. Stewart, CBE) spearheaded the initiative to build a new hospital for the veterans. The committee, and many other individuals, groups, and organizations, lobbied intensely. Sunnybrook Farm was ultimately identified as the preferred site. The heirs of the Kilgour estate approved. A BOVE : Sunnybrook Farm (1910). L EFT : Sunnybrook Park dedication plaque (1928).Aerial photo of Sunnybrook Park (c. 1940).Christie Street Veterans Hospital (c. 1940).Public protest about conditions for veterans at Christie Street Hospital.
(Photo courtesy of the Globe and Mail) Architects Allward and Gouinlock were commissioned to design the new hospital. 1940). Public protest about conditions for veterans at Christie Street Hospital.
(Photo courtesy of the Globe and Mail) Architects Allward and Gouinlock were commissioned to design the new hospital.

On Remembrance Day 1943, the first sod was turned. On November 11, 1944, the Honourable Ian Mackenzie laid the cornerstone for the Neuropsychiatric Building. In June 1945, the Red Cross Lodge foundation stone was laid by the Honourable Leopold McCauley on the current site of the Odette Cancer Centre. (Today, that stone sits in front of the Veterans Centre as a tribute to all of the Red Cross volunteers who have cared for Canadas veterans over the years.) On November 11, 1945, Corporal Fred Topham, VC, laid the cornerstone for the Active Treatment Building of the hospital. In 1945, Dr. Karl E.

Hollis was appointed as the first Hospital Superintendent. Sunnybrook Hospital construction (c. 1944).Sunnybrook Hospital construction.Plaque honouring the service of men and women of the armed forces and the medical staff at Sunnybrook.Active Treatment and Outpatient Building (1948). On September 26, 1945, Private Raymond Scott was the first patient to enter Sunnybrook Hospital, as one of a group of 87 walking patients and 14 stretcher patients transferred from Christie Street Hospital. These first patients were located on D-Wing, named Lancaster. Dr. Dr. Dr.

Casey Little, who was in charge of medical services at Christie Street Hospital, oversaw the transfer and practised at Sunnybrook until he retired in 1952.