Long Branch’s Other Hospital
Dr. E.C. Hazard Memorial Hospital …
This mostly forgotten city charity healthcare institution — known as the “Hospital with a Heart” — was opened in December 1920 at Washington and Dewey Streets by Elmer Clarke Hazard, MD, PhD, ScD. Beginning with 10 beds in an old two-story frame barn, by June 1923 the E.C. Hazard Memorial Hospital was incorporated with 150 beds.
As matter of fact — no other hospital in the nation cared more for its patients. This small city hospital once led the whole country in the percentage of charity patients treated. Hazard Hospital also led the state and the county in charitable care cases for decades. During Great Depression times, more than 90% of patients paid nothing for their treatment. For a longtime Dr. Hazard funded the hospital out of his own pocket — averaging $40,000+ for many years.
The facility mostly operated as a general hospital and ER with a nursing school; it specialized in pediatrics and obstetrics. At peak operation, just after World War II, the hospital was “crowded to capacity” with a patient-days occupancy rate at 98%. A $250,000 expansion wing was opened in September 1956; former heavyweight boxing champions Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano were both on hand for the dedication ceremony, according to a Long Branch Daily Record report.
The eldest son of a tomato/ketchup factory owner and fancy groceries magnate, Dr. Hazard was born in NYC in December 1879. Highly educated and trained in healthcare, he earned his MD degree from Maryland Medical College at Baltimore in June 1904 after getting a doctorate in pharmacy from Columbia University in NYC in 1902. He also held a third doctorate in Science. “Life is far more valuable then money,” was the good doctor’s healing philosophy. Much-admired around the city, Dr. Hazard “created a place where the poor, suffering, and needy” could go for free healthcare, according to a June 1958 Long Branch Daily Record editorial.
Dr. Hazard — after devoting “his life and fortune” to the hospital — died in November 1954 after a long illness. His brother, Bowdoin Hazard, was the hospital’s administrator for over decade. He died in 1957 after his car was hit a by a train at the Joline Avenue crossing.
In February 1959, the facility was acquired by the Home for the Chronic Sick of Irvington, NJ for $300,000; Joseph Fox, PhD was the executive director. The facility was damaged by a fire in May 1968 and Dr. Hazard’s original house was torn down in 1969. The facility ceased all healthcare operations in 1974.
Today, the only hospital left in Long Branch is Monmouth Medical Center on Third Avenue. Founded in 1887, it is part of the RWJ Barnabus Health network.