The CLEVELAND HOMEOPATHIC HOSPITAL (May 1856-1917), founded by Dr. Seth R. Beckwith, was the first privately owned hospital in Cleveland. Beckwith took over a 2-story house on Lake St. (Lakeside Ave.) at Clinton Rd. and modified it to accommodate 20 patients, mainly sick and injured employees of the Lake Shore and the Cleveland, Columbus, & Cincinnati railroads. It soon affiliated with the Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital College, formed in 1850 as the Western College of Homeopathy, where Beckwith was an instructor and later dean (see HOMEOPATHY). The college faculty practiced and taught at the hospital. In 1869 homeopathic physicians withdrew from the Willson St. Hospital and opened Cleveland Protestant Homeopathy Hospital. In 1873 that hospital moved into the Humiston Institute building on Huron Rd. The hospital consolidated with Beckwith's hospital, and the following year incorporated as the Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital (sometimes referred to as the Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital Society). The incorporators were Drs. Beckwith, Hamilton F. Biggar, and John C. Sanders. Dr. H. H. Baxter was also prominently identified with the project. A new hospital was constructed on the Huron Rd. site in 1879, and a larger building replaced that one in 1895. The Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital closed in 1919 because of competition from ST. VINCENT CHARITY HOSPITAL, and became Huron Rd. Hospital, later MERIDIA HURON HOSPITAL.
See also MEDICINE, HOSPITALS AND HEALTH PLANNING.