Used divided back natural color postcard with white border. Front: view of exterior front façade of St. Mary's Hospital. The hospital is a five story, L-plan or V-plan brick, stone and terra cotta building in the Beaux Arts Style. Architectural features includes: a center entrance pavilion with long wings that terminate in bowed bays on either side; raised basement reads as a single story and is Bedford limestone, the four stories above are tan brick; stone or terra cotta entablature; four-story pilasters divide the façade into bays and rectangular windows which are grouped in pairs within each bay; a pedimented wall with a scrolled cartouche in which is located the date 1909; below in the entablature are the words "St. Mary's Hospital" on either side are two cartouche with the dates 1848 and 1857. Back: handwritten address and message. Narrative on top left - "St. Mary's Hospital rises majestically from an eminence, commanding a view of Lake Michigan on the East and the Bay of Milwaukee on the South. It covers an area of 302 x 208 feet, is five stories in height, and is of concrete and reinforced steel construction." Publisher: "E. C. Kropp Co., Milwaukee" printed center left. Printing information: Printing information: card no. 2745. Blue ink. Postal data: postmarked [flag postmark], postmarked (NORTH MILWAUKEE, WIS, JUL 13, 3:30PM, 1929). Postage: cancelled green ink, 1¢ stamp; portrait of Benjamin Franklin, within an oval and partly enclosed in a panel which is supported on either side by acanthus scrolls. Above the portrait in a curved line appear the words "United States postage" in white Roman letters. On a ribbon below the oval is the name "Franklin" and under this, at the bottom of the stamp, appears the word "Cent." In both lower corners within ovals with dark backgrounds is the white numeral "1." The entire stamp is enclosed within a cross-line border with small triangular ornaments in both upper corners. ; The hospital was established and run by the Daughters of Charity, who had come to Milwaukee from their motherhouse in Maryland in August of 1846 at the request of Catholic Bishop Martin Henni. The Daughters operated a small hospital in a house on Jefferson Street some time after their 1846 arrival. Founded May 15, 1848, as St. John's Infirmary, in 1855 the hospital was moved downtown, and, in 1858 was built on this site on three acres given by the City. Construction of the new hospital began in the spring of 1857, and the cornerstone was laid on May 11, 1857. The Sisters occupied the new hospital, now called St. Mary's, on November 24, 1858. The Daughters of Charity had decided to rename the hospital because of its new location away from St. John's Cathedral. The new, three-story structure sat on an elevated basement story and had a central projecting pavilion 53-foot high with a mansard roof and cupola and flanking wings that were 45-foot high. It was constructed of common or unpressed brick. The hospital's main façade faced east toward Lake Michigan. On August 3, 1888 a permit was taken out to construct a four-story, 61-foot by 64-foot addition to the south of the existing building. The new wing, designed by prominent local architects Crane & Barkhausen, was Queen Anne in style with a number of bays and a mansard roof. Blessed by Archbishop Hess on March 8, 1889, the new wing doubled the hospital's capacity. By 1907 the nuns had gotten Chicago architect Richard E. Smith to draw up plans for a new facility. By the time a loan was secured for the new construction, the Sisters of Charity had decided to build an even larger building and commissioned the firm of Esenwein & Johnson from Buffalo, New York, to design the new facility. The cornerstone was laid on May 9, 1909. Patients were moved into the new building on June 28, 1910, and the old building was then razed. ; Daughters of Charity