First Maternity Ward

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Provision for maternity patients in the Hospital was first made when they were temporarily housed in the Palmer Ward after it was completed in 1903. This however was a makeshift arrangement, and in January of 1905, a house was moved from North University Avenue to a site on the west side of the Medical Ward Building (the original Catherine Street Homeopathic Hospital). The original intended use of this house was for a contagious desease hospital. Another house was moved to an adjacent site in 1908. Both houses served the Department of Obstetrics for many years, although neither of these buildings was at all adequate. The train tracks carrying coal to the University Power Plant ran between the houses. They were finally condemed as a fire hazard.