After viewing the
success of the nations first municipal ambulance service at
Bellevue Hospital, the Common Council of the City of Brooklyn
set aside the sum of $4,600 to fund two ambulances.The first
municipal ambulance in The City of Brooklyn began in August
1873 at Long Island College Hospital. This ambulance was owned
by the Department of Health and staffed by surgeons from the
hospital. Its horses were rented and housed in a stable on
Pacific Street. In October of that year, the citys' second
ambulance began service at Eastern District Hospital on South
3rd Street.
In 1875, a year after Charles Feltman
introduced the hot dog at Coney Island, a first aid station
was established by the beach at West 3rd Street to meet the
emergency medical needs of the huge summer beach crowds. Open
only during the summer months, this first aid station
eventually grew into The Coney Island Reception
Hospital.
Recognizing the need for additional service,
the City of Brooklyn Department of Health initiated ambulance
service at the Reception Hospital in June 1894. During its
first season, the ambulance responded to 152 calls. By 1907
the ambulance was responding to over 600 calls per summer
season.
Six months after Brooklyn is
consolidated into the City of New York, on July 1,1898, Kings
County Hospital began ambulance service to the majority of
central and southern Brooklyn. When called, it was not
uncommon for this ambulance to take 50 minutes to make the 8
mile trip to Sheepshead Bay or Coney Island. The ambulance of
Norwegian Hospital in Bay Ridge also responded to the seashore
communities, often making trips up to 10
miles
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The Reception Hospital soon outgrew its meager facilities, and in
1904 a new 6 bed, two story emergency hospital was erectedon
the northwest corner of Sea Breeze Avenue and West 2 Street
(where 205 Seabreeze Avenue stands today), still staffed only
during the summer season from April to October.
A
stable behind the hospital provided quarters for the horses
and ambulance.