A RAILWAY HOSPITAL (1856-59) opened when Cleveland railroads cooperatively rented an abandoned water-cure (see HYDROTHERAPY) establishment on Lake St. and converted it into a hospital for company employees injured in accidents. Some private patients were admitted, usually gynecological cases. Dr. Seth R. Beckwith, a well-known Cleveland homeopathic physician and professor of surgery at Western Homeopathic College (see CLEVELAND HOMEOPATHIC HOSPITAL), was permitted to treat his private patients at the "railway" hospital. The hospital was closed after 3 years for an undisclosed reason. The Railway Hospital was one of a series of temporary hospitals in Cleveland prior to the CIVIL WAR, an early example of local FACTORY HOSPITALS.
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