Kernan, James Lawrence, Hospital - Baltimore MD - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

Also known as Radnor Park; J. L. Kernan Hospital and Industrial School of Maryland for Crippled Children.

The hospital is now operated by the University of Maryland Rehabilitation and Orthopedic Institute.

NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM

The Kernan Hospital complex offers a fine example of the adaptive use of a large 19th-century estate which had grown too large for an individual owner to maintain as a summer residence. Although the mansion, Radnor Park, has lost its Victorian "gingerbread" appearance on the exterior, its present appearance is typical of the alterations made to many Victorian buildings in the second and third decade of the 20th century.

In addition the earlier, elaborate interior decoration remains in unaltered condition in most of the first floor rooms. The 1920's hospital structures were built in a style that blends well with, the mansion and its grounds. Although newer additions to the hospital are not in keeping with the historic nature of the property, they are, at the same time, not visible except from the rear entrance.

James Lawrence Kernan was a theater manager and philanthropist of the late Victorian and early Edwardian eras in Baltimore. He had a knack for reflecting the public taste for entertainment that earned him a considerable fortune.

Kernan’s connection with the Hospital for Crippled Children came about through Miss Ada Mosby, the daughter of his Civil War friend, Colonel Mosby. They came together in her search for a piano for the children.

Eventually Kernan decided to make the hospital his major charity and provided for it through a deed of trust and the terms Of his will. In 1910 he purchased Radnor Park with about sixty acres and donated it to the Hospital which moved to its new quarters in June 1911.

The Hospital's name was changed to the James Lawrence Kernan Hospital and Industrial School of Maryland for Crippled Children, Inc. Kernan arranged for a New York firm to draft plans for further construction at the hospital, including seven new buildings to cost several hundred thousand dollars.

Convalescent dormitories, wards for acute cases, a surgical building and an operating pavilion would provide facilities for orthopedic care for the entire state of Maryland. Kernan died the following year, leaving the plans, which bore some resemblance to Thomas Jefferson's buildings around the green at the University of Virginia, largely uncompleted.

The James Lawrence Kernan hospital did not achieve the physical size that its endower envisioned, but it serves more patients than he could ever have anticipated. As he had hoped, it does serve the entire State of Maryland.

Its main thrust is still orthopedics, much of it now in the adult, as well as the pediatric field. In fact the hospital does more orthopedic surgery than any other institution in the mid-Atlantic area, yet still maintains the gracious mansion house and park that prompted Kernan to buy the estate in 1910.

Street address: 2200 Kernan Drive Baltimore, MD United States 21207 County / Borough / Parish: Baltimore (Independent City) Year listed: 1979 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event, Person, Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1926, 1911, 1863 Historic function: Domestic Current function: Health Care Privately owned?: no Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   09/10/2021 Don.Morfe visited it 05/16/2021 Searcher28 visited it

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