Kernan, James Lawrence, Hospital - Baltimore MD
Posted by: Don.Morfe
N 39° 18.816 W 076° 42.564
18S E 352631 N 4352971
The Kernan Hospital complex offers a fine example of the adaptive use of a large 19th-century estate. The hospital is now operated by the University of Maryland Rehabilitation and Orthopedic Institute.
Waymark Code: WM144F3
Location: Maryland, United States
Date Posted: 04/12/2021
Views: 3
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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