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.
