HOLY NAME MEDICAL CENTER
TEANECK
1925
THE START
24
2019 EDITION (201) HEALTH
1956
MULTIPLE ADDITIONS
Dedicated in 1956, the 115-bed Marian
Pavilion stood four stories, cost $3 million
and brought the total number of beds at
Holy Name to 300. Within a decade, two
$1 million additions were tacked on to the
Pavilion’s west end and roof as planned by
Paterson’s Fanning and Shaw, the architects
famed for Hinchliffe Stadium.
Holy Name opened one of the state’s first dialysis units in
1969, and nine years later completed a $16 million modern-
ization program, its fifth major renovation. Spacious rooms,
relocated bathrooms and excess parking were integrated to
appease patients. No beds were added to the existing 370,
after Bergen hospital administrators found that a survey
commissioned by county freeholders overestimated the
number of beds needed to serve county residents.
(Top) Holy Name Hospital in
Teaneck expanded with multiple
renovations, including the 1954
addition and the 1966 addition
(above)
Constructed on the former estate of a U.S.
congressman and ambassador, Holy Name
Medical Center opened in 1925 with 150
beds, a 13-student nursing school and a staff
full of Catholic nuns.
Members of the Sisters of St. Joseph of
Peace, who had been in New Jersey since
teaming up with the Diocese of Newark in
1885, filled administrative and general staff
roles for the non-sectarian hospital.
Their leader, Mother General Agatha
Brown, had earlier joined forces with
Teaneck surgeons Frank McCormack and
George Pitkin. The doctors needed help
hatching their plan to provide medical care
for area residents, with the daily cost of
sending patients to Englewood Hospital rising
to $2.47 per person by 1924.
The Sisters then carved out 12-acres of the
estate of the late William Walter Phelps,
which covered roughly half of modern-day
Teaneck. On top went Holy Name Hospital.
Construction near the corner of Cedar Lane
and Teaneck Road cost an estimated
$600,000. A central power plant and nurses’
facility cost $400,000.
When the 228-foot-long hospital opened in
October 1925, a woman with acute appendi-
citis was the first treated. Thousands more
patients followed before locals launched a
campaign to raise $800,000 for Holy Name’s
first expansion project.
William Conklin, the chairman of the cam-
paign, told The Record in April 1928, that the
600 beds existing across Bergen County’s
three hospitals were not nearly enough for its
275,000 residents. At the time, Holy Name
was welcoming patients from 54 of the
county’s 70 municipalities.
Conklin’s campaign came up $500,000
short, but the money raised allowed the
hospital to add about 70 beds in 1931. After
World War II, rapid community growth
forced a second addition.