Bellevue Hospital
hospital in New York City, New York United States
Bellevue Hospital (officially NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and formerly known as Bellevue Hospital Center) is a hospital in New York City and the oldest public hospital in the United States. One of the largest hospitals in the United States by number of beds, it is located at 462 First Avenue in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.
Historically, Bellevue was so frequently associated with its treatment of mentally ill patients that "Bellevue" became a local pejorative slang term for a psychiatric hospital.
The hospital has since developed into a comprehensive major medical center. The hospital contains a 25-story patient care facility and has an attending physician staff of 1,200.
Bellevue is a safety net hospital, providing healthcare for individuals regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay. It handles over half a million patient visits each year.
History
Founding
Bellevue traces its origins to the city's first permanent almshouse, a two-story brick building completed in 1736 on the city common, now City Hall Park.
In 1798, the city purchased Belle Vue farm, a property near the East River several miles north of the settled city, which had been used to quarantine the sick during a series of yellow fever outbreaks.
The hospital was formally named Bellevue Hospital in 1824.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Bellevue Hospital” as hospital in New York City, New York United States. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as hospital in New York City, New York United States. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2894927. VIAF identifies the subject as 4264149844954502960003. The Library of Congress control number is n50052200. Authority coordinates are 40.739, -73.975. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1736, 1798 and 1824.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Bellevue Hospital”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Bellevue Hospital primary sources, Bellevue Hospital archive and Bellevue research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Bellevue Hospital” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.