Photograph was edited for publication purposes.; Original print is of inferior quality. Central Receiving Hospital, founded in 1868, was Los Angeles' first public hospital providing emergency care and paramedic services to the people of the city for more than a century. Throughout its years in operation, the hospital has had five homes: the first Central Receiving Hospital opened at Chávez Ravine (in 1868) as a hospice for victims of pestilence, especially smallpox, but eventually admitted victims of other contagious diseases as well. In the 1880s it transferred to the back of the downtown Central Police Station and served as a two-room emergency first-aid unit. In 1896, a "new" Central Police Station and Receiving Hospital (now in its third location) opened on the south side of 1st Street, between Broadway and Hill streets. In 1927 the hospital was transferred once again, this time a few miles away, relocating on the third floor of the Georgia Street Police Station, where it served as the city's central emergency hospital for 30 years and housed the Police Department unit for approximately 70 years. The three-story brick-faced structure was located at 1337 Georgia Street. And finally in 1957, Central Receiving Hospital opened for a fifth, and last time, in a new location on west 6th Street and Loma Drive at a cost of $1.5 million. In its 102 years of operation, the most famous patient ever treated at Central Receiving Hospital was Robert F. Kennedy, who arrived by ambulance in the early morning hours of June 5, 1968 after being shot at the nearby Ambassador Hotel - where he had just won the California presidential primary. When Kennedy arrived at the hospital he was near death, but doctors were able to obtain a good heartbeat and after about 30 minutes, was transferred to Good Samaritan Hospital for surgery. Tragically, despite extensive neurosurgery, Robert F. Kennedy succumbed to his gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at Good Samaritan Hospital the following morning, June 6, 1968 at 1:44 am, nearly 26 hours after the shooting. Central Receiving Hospital closed its doors to the public in 1970, though the Police Department continued to use the building offering physical and psychological exams to police officers and firefighters. The building was eventually demolished (in 2005) to make way for the Los Angeles Police Department's new $29-million Rampart Station. Pictured are nurse Sadie Olsen and Miss Floy Tate, a 38-year-old unemployed secretary who was taken to the Georgia Street Receiving Hospital in serious condition with a small-caliber bullet wound through her left breast in what police said was a suicide attempt. Ms. Tate's plight was discovered by a telephone operator, who called Mrs. Claire Sigar, a housekeeper at the hotel where Tate lived, located at 939 S. Figueroa St. The woman had left the telephone receiver off the hook before shooting herself. She left a note addressed to her father, Dr. F. M. Tate of San Angelo, TX. Photograph dated November 12, 1947.
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Image
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1 photographic print :b&w ;24 x 19 cm. on sheet 26 x 21 cm. Photographic prints
Central Receiving Hospital (Los Angeles, Calif.) Suicidal behavior--California--Los Angeles Nurses--California--Los Angeles Hospitals--California--Los Angeles Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express photographs Herald-Examiner Collection photographs
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