Touro Through the Years: 1852 - 2018 Touro

1852 – New Orleans Philanthropist Judah Touro purchases the Paulding mansion on Gaienne and Old Levee Streets and converts it into a 28-bed hospital. Joseph Bensadon is the founding house surgeon.

1854 – Judah Touro dies on January 18, 1854, and the hospital is named Touro Infirmary in his honor.

1862 – Touro is converted into a “Home for the Jewish Aged” to prevent it from being overtaken by the Union Army.

1882 – The new Touro Infirmary building is erected at Prytania and Aline Streets, resulting in an increase in what historic records refer to as “pay” patients, in addition to the amount of the hospital’s charity work.

1895 – Dr. Rudolph Matas, one of the most innovative and well known surgeons in the country transferred from the old New Orleans Sanitarium to Touro Infirmary.

1896 – The Touro Infirmary School of Nursing opens under the direction of Frances Quaife.

1898 – The Julius Weis Home for the Aged and Infirm opens.

1900 - Touro was lit by electricity, connected by telephone, and warmed with central heat.

1918 – A great influenza epidemic (the “Spanish Flu”) gripped the world, and Touro Infirmary overflowed with victims.

1922 - Touro Infirmary Maternity Service is established and Touro purchases the first incubators in New Orleans.

1923 – Touro is one of fifteen hospitals to receive Rockefeller funding for insulin testing under the direction of I.I. Lemann.

1929 – The first Physical Therapy Department in the city is established at Touro Infirmary.

1965 – The new Hortense and Jacob Aron Building expands Touro Infirmary’s capacity to 560 beds and created a main entrance on Foucher Street.

1977 – The Touro Patient Services Complex including the Nadler-Bloch Nuclear Medicine Department opens.

1980 – Ground breaking takes place for the Buckman Medical Office Building.

1987 – The Judah Touro Society is founded and the first annual dinner is a successful fundraising venture. Stephen Goldring receives the first Judah Touro Society Award in 1989.

1990 – The Board of Trustees approves the establishment of the Touro Infirmary Foundation.

2005 – Hurricane Katrina forces Touro Infirmary to close its doors for the first time since the Civil War. Touro was the first hospital in New Orleans to reopen – just 28 days later.

2009 – Touro opens a new state-of-the-art Imaging Center at the corner of Claiborne and Napoleon Avenues.

2009 – Touro solidifies its identity as “the place where babies come from” with the third highest number of deliveries for any single hospital in Louisiana.

2009 – Touro and Children’s Hospital partner to form a two-hospital medical system, LCMC Health, providing a complete continuum of care from birth to geriatrics.

2012 – Touro completes renovations to its first floor main entrance and first, second and third floor corridors that are intended to recall the building’s original design.

2015 – LCMC Health expands to include University Medical Center and West Jefferson Medical Center.

2016 – Touro earns certification as a Primary Stroke Center and relocates its outpatient rehabilitation services to a new, expanded facility at 1525 St. Charles Ave.

2018 – Touro’s Cancer Care Program is among 16 nationwide to be recognized for Outstanding Achievement by the Commission on Cancer.