St. Vincent's Hospital

Joseph’s 1955 entry most likely belongs to St. Vincent’s postwar expansion around the Jacob L. Reiss Memorial Building, completed in 1953–54, although the exact Kelly contract remains unconfirmed. Three decades later, elsewhere on the same campus, St. Vincent’s became one of the defining institutions of New York’s AIDS crisis. It opened the East Coast’s first and largest dedicated AIDS ward in 1984, cared for thousands of patients, and became both a refuge for people with AIDS and a focus of ACT UP activism that pushed the hospital to change discriminatory practices. After the hospital closed in 2010, the New York City AIDS Memorial was established across Seventh Avenue on the former hospital service site.

Landmarks documentation dates the Jacob L. Reiss Memorial Building to 1953–54 and identifies Eggers & Higgins as architect. Joseph's 1955 entry may represent finishing work or a closely related phase; no contract-level evidence yet ties Kelly to Reiss, so the identification remains a leading candidate.

St. Vincent's Hospital; Jacob L. Reiss Memorial Building; Sisters of Charity; AIDS ward; ACT UP; New York City AIDS Memorial; Eggers & Higgins.

v3.6.31: replaced the Spellman-led contextual visual with a 1979 HABS campus streetscape; strengthened the AIDS-history narrative; retained the unconfirmed Reiss/Kelly identification caveat.

St. Vincent's became a defining institution of New York's AIDS crisis, opening the East Coast's first and largest dedicated AIDS ward in 1984. The hospital closed in 2010; the probable Reiss building was retained and converted, and the New York City AIDS Memorial was later established across Seventh Avenue on the former service site.

Greenwich Village, New York, NY