Milwaukee Hospital

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Milwaukee Hospital sits at 2200 W. Kilbourn Ave. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It helped lead antiseptic surgery when its operating rooms opened in 1912, and by 1926 it housed what was then the United States’ most powerful x-ray machine. The hospital complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

Founded in 1863 by Lutheran minister William Passavant, the hospital began in a former farmhouse. Passavant is honored as a saint by the Lutheran and Episcopal churches. In 1884 a new building was constructed for patient care. Dr. Nicholas Senn joined the staff in 1879 and was known for antiseptic methods to study the pancreas and intestines, at a time when germ theory was still new. In the early 1900s, Rev. Herman Fritschel, the hospital’s director, expanded the campus and built the 1912 Surgical Annex—a five‑story addition that is the oldest surviving part of the current complex.

The hospital grew with more wings: a six‑story West Wing added in 1925–26, a Central Wing in 1931 replacing the old hospital, and a Maternity Pavilion in 1941. The Senn Wing followed in 1951–52. Other additions included a rebuilt Lutheran Deaconess Home in 1956, the Hennekemper Wing in 1958, the East Wing in 1969, and the East Pavilion in 1980. The original iron fence atop a Waukesha blue‑stone wall was built in 1903 by Casper Hennecke; a fence along State Street was added later.