Famous people's places / Detroit – Midtown

Harper University Hospital

One of Michigan's oldest hospitals, founded in 1863 to treat Civil War soldiers, and the Midtown Detroit hospital where Mitt Romney was born in 1947.

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Harper Hospital traces its roots to 1863, when it was chartered to care for Civil War soldiers passing through Detroit, admitting its first patients the following year and becoming a general hospital by 1866. It grew into one of Michigan's oldest teaching hospitals, training Wayne State University medical students from 1868 and, from 1884, nurses at its own nationally recognized nursing school; its landmark Gothic Revival building on John R Street was designed by Elijah E. Myers, architect of the Michigan State Capitol. Future Massachusetts governor and US presidential candidate Mitt Romney was born at Harper on March 12, 1947, when his father, auto executive George Romney, was still years from entering politics. In 1973 Harper merged with Grace Hospital, and both became founding members of the Detroit Medical Center when it formed in 1985. Now known as Harper University Hospital, it remains an active Wayne State University teaching hospital and a flagship of the Detroit Medical Center in Midtown.

Chartered in 1863 to treat Civil War soldiers
One of Michigan's oldest teaching hospitals, linked to Wayne State University since 1868
Mitt Romney was born here on March 12, 1947
Founding member of the Detroit Medical Center, formed in 1985

Famous Detroiters

Famous people tied to this place 5

Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.

Mitt Romney born 1947 · politician, businessman
Born here
The Midtown hospital where he was born on March 12, 1947.
Elijah E. Myers 1832–1909 · architect
Worked here
The hospital building he designed, demolished in 1977; Harper University Hospital continues in newer buildings.
Ethelene Crockett 1914–1978 · physician, obstetrician-gynecologist, activist
Worked here
She worked as a gynecologist at Grace and Harper hospitals in the 1970s.
William W. Wheaton 1833–1891 · wholesale grocer, mayor of Detroit
Related place
He died at Harper Hospital on November 11, 1891.
Forest Dewey Dodrill 1902–1997 · surgeon
Worked here
The Detroit hospital where Dodrill trained and practiced, and where he performed the first open-heart operation with the Dodrill-GMR pump in 1952; today part of the Detroit Medical Center.