File:Washington Institute and City Reservoir, Manhattan.jpeg

No credit line.

In 1830 the New York City Fire Department's first reservoir (the octagonal building) was erected near the southeast corner of 13th Street and Fourth Avenue; in 1850 New York Medical College was founded in a new building on the site, at 112 East 13th Street.

The Washington Institute on 13th Street was a private school for boys; in the late 1840s the Roman Catholic Sisters of Charity acquired the property and founded St. Vincent's Hospital there.

Sources:

• Bradford Map of New York City (1839) shows location of reservoir.
• Fay and Dakin, pp. 27-9
• Jacobi, Abraham. "The New York Medical College 1782-1906" Annals of Medical History Vol. 1 No. 4 (Winter 1917), p. 370. Online provider: Google Books.
• Perris, William. Maps of the City of New York Vol. 4 (Perris & Browne, 1853), Plate 52 (St. Vincent Hospital and New York Medical College). Online provider: New York Public Library.
• "Prospectus: St. Vincent's Hospital, New-York" (advertisement). New-York Daily Tribune 1849-11-16 p. 4 col. 5: "Thirteenth-st. between Third and Fourth avenues, formerly known as the Washington Institute." Online provider: Library of Congress.
• Sheldon, George W. The Story of the Volunteer Fire Department of the City of New York (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1882), pp. 94-5. Online provider: Google Books.