#302 Unknown Photographer The building with the awnings was the Demilt Dispensary, northwest corner of 23rd Street and Second Avenue, organized by the AICP in 1851 and built in 1852 at a cost, including land, of about $30,000. The building to the left was the Jensen Piano Factory. Both buildings,sturdy as the day they were built, were demolished in the spring of 1969. To date (7/31/70), nothing has been erected on the plot. The horse drawn vehicles and the clothes of the woman crossing the street with the child indicate the picture was taken about 19OO. The sign on the Dispensary is indistinct but appears to be that of a commercial firm. [—;; Jones, ;;- & Fancy Metal Work] In 1893, the building was still the Demilt Dispensary. King's Handbook of New York, c1893, has a picture of the Dispensary and states at p. 488, that "its service includes the district lying between 14th and 40th Streets and Sixth Avenue and the East River. It treats upwards of 30,000 cases yearly and dispenses nearly 70,000 prescriptions." The 8th Annual Report of the AICP, for the year 1851, pages 20-22, describes the establishment of the Demilt Dispensary and says, "The institution was denominated the 'Demilt Dispensary,' in consequence of the munificent donation of five thousand dollars, from a benevolent gentlemen,'as one of the Residuary Legatees of the Demilt family.'"
Streets; Industrial buildings; Horses; Health facilities; Dispensaries; Children; Carriages and carts; Buildings; New York (N.Y.); Demilt Dispensary (New York, N.Y.)