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An hospital providing homeopathic health care, the Homeopathic Medical College, was chartered in San Francisco, CA, on 01/20/1881. A second institution, which developed from it, the Hahnemann Hospital College of San Francisco, was incorporated in 11/1887, and was located at 115 Haight Street. According to historian Gladys Hansen, Hahnemann operated from 1887-1901 at this location, when it moved to a new site at Sacramento Street and Maple Street. (See Gladys Hansen, San Francisco Almanac Everything You Want to Know about the City, [San Rafael, CA : Presidio Press, 1980], p. 191.) Other sources say that a new building for the Hahnemann Hospital opened in 04/1906. (See Francis Treuherz and Sylvain Cazalet, American Institute of Homœopathy, "Hospitals and Sanatoriums of the Homœopathic School of Medicine,"Accessed 09/26/2010.) The Children's Hospital Auxiliary bought this property in 1922. Hahnemann Hospital built a third building on California Street and used this until the 1970s. Marshal Hale II (b. 02/14/1866), the scion of a prominent mercantile family, served ten years as the President of Hahnemann Medical College and Hahnemann Hospital, and his family provided money for a new building in 1974; the institution was subsequently renamed in his honor in 03/1975. This fourth hospital building, at 3733 Sacramento Street, now forms part of the California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC).

The German physician, Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), the founder of modern homeopathic medicine, operated in the late 1700s and early 1800s. His ideas spread across Europe, with the first homeopathic hospital opening on the Continent in 1832. Its influence grew throughout the 19th century and spread to the U.S. where various health care institutions were named for him, most notably in Philadelphia, PA. Homeopathy became eclipsed by allopathic medicine by 1900, with the result that the former declined until the 1970s. In 1916, the Hahnemann Hospital #2 had 90 beds and treated 1,245 patients. Its land and building had a worth of $150,000. At this time, medical staff at Hahnemann taught a three-year course in homeopathic medicine to 32 interns per year. This medical college was known as the Hahnemann College of the Pacific.

PCAD id: 15528