Dunbar Hospital

The Dunbar Hospital was the first hospital for the black community in Detroit, Michigan. It is located at 580 Frederick Street, and is currently the administrative headquarters of the Detroit Medical Society. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.Building construction and descriptionThe building housing the Dunbar Hospital was built in 1892 by the Guy W. Vinton Company as a home for real estate developer Charles W. Warren. The home was constructed in a fashionable 19th century residential district.The structure is a three-story home of mixed Romanesque Revival and Queen Anne style, built of red brick and rough-cut ashlar. The entrance is through a recessed, arched first-floor porch and the second story has a double-arch brick balcony. The roof is slate, with a bay-windowed gabled dormer surmounting the front façade.Founding of the Dunbar HospitalIn 1894, Dr. James W. Ames, a graduate of both Straight University and Howard University, arrived in Detroit after a stint of teaching in New Orleans. He quickly became influential in both Detroit's white community and its then-small black community. Detroit's mayor at the time was Hazen Pingree. During his subsequent re-election campaign, Pingree actively courted the black vote, in part by supporting Ames's bid for election to the Michigan state legislature.