Mt. Sinai Hospital originally operated its dispensaries out of two locations in the West End. In 1916 a group of doctors, businessmen, religious leaders, and a women’s auxiliary purchased the Dennison estate in Roxbury here on Townsend Street. It served as an inpatient and outpatient facility, and, although it was a Jewish hospital, it was open to everyone. To continue their work to meet the health needs of the community, the organization named itself the Beth Israel Association.
Within a few years they were swamped, as were all hospitals, by a tuberculosis epidemic, the 1918 flu epidemic, and the 1919 Boston molasses flood. Efforts continued to establish a larger facility and in 1928 Beth Israel Hospital opened its door in its present location on Brookline Avenue in Brookline.
