Retreat for the Sick
The Medical College of Virginia invited Annabella Ravenscroft Gibson Jenkins, a self-trained nurse who cared for the Sick and wounded during the Civil War, to organize a hospital. With the help of a Lady Board of Managers, Jenkins opened the Retreat for the Sick in March 1877 in the former College Hospital building. The Retreat for the Sick, which was initially staffed by physicians from MCV, provided care to all regardless of race, creed, religion or ability to pay. After five successful years, Jenkins and her Lady Board of Managers were asked to vacate the facility. They relocated their hospital just around the corner at 12th and Marshall Streets where it remained until 1920.