Who's Louise Burg?

Factual Questions
1

I am doing a website and I have included a page on the Louise Burg Hospital. It was bought and renamed the Lakeside Community Hospital.

The address was 255 West Cermak Rd. Chicago, Ill. 60616.

OK I have looked through historical archives of the Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Defender. I even spent time at the big library downtown trying to find medical journals. Which I did. I got tons of info on the Louise Burg HOSPITAL. But I can’t find out, who in the world Louise Burg was?

She must of been someone of note to get a hospital named after her. Unless she died and gave the money to build the hospital. But usually those are “memorial” hospitals, such as when Frank Cuneo died his family used his money for the Frank Cuneo Memorial Hospital.

Anyway, anyone have any idea who Louise Burg is? BTW it is definately B-U-R-G, not Berg. I’ve seen sign and pictures of the old hospital clearly spelling it BURG.

2

Well, after an hour of research, I’m stymied, too. But I have a tantalizing hint. A Louise Burg, age 24, was a junior nurse in training at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, Conn. at the time of the 1930 Census–and apparently lived there, as that’s where she was enumerated.

So I think we’re going to learn that she later married a Chicago businessman, who founded (or endowed) a hospital in the late 1950s under her maiden name.

3

Thanks for your effort. So far in my research for old Chicago Hospitals, I’ve been able to identify all the hospitals named after people.

I couldn’t believe this as I would go through articles and they’d say The XXX Hospital named after. All the articles say “named after” or “named for”

I wonder if she could’ve been a black activist? Or maybe a woman physican like Mary Thompson

4

^I don’t think so. I spent a fair amount of time searching specialized biographical encyclopedias, which would turn up pretty much every pioneering woman or African-American professional.

5

Of course, while it’s BURG, newspapers have a habit of printing other things.

Example using the Historic Chicago Defender–

[Chi Defender “louise BERG hospital” 42 hits]
[Chi Defender "louise BURG hospital 57 hits]
Using the Historic Chi Tribune–

“Louise BERG Hospital gets 45 hits”
“Louise BURG Hospital gets 238 hits”

I’ve done some looking also–nothing yet. Except it seems to have been established in 1954.

6

Thanks for the note, but I was referring to Louise Burg herself, not the hospital. I just wanted to make sure that someone didn’t look up Louise Berg. We can assume since the actual sign on the hospital was Louise BURG Hospital, BURG is the correct spelling of the person

7

Yep. I understood. Sorry if I wan’t clear. I spent perhaps 3 hours on this today. I have online access to probably as many newspaper databases as you, maybe more.

Just amazing that we can’t find a hit on the lady after whom the hospital must have been named.

edited to add: Maybe you want to put on your website the dates for the hospitals using their names.

8

I’m not sure how helpful this is, as it seems unlikely that you don’t already know, but the Louise Burg Hospital was originally the People’s Hospital of Chicago, and is located in the middle of Chicago’s Chinatown. I can’t tell when the original hospital was built, but perhaps Louise Burg was somehow associated with the hospital during that era, or perhaps had some relationship with the Chinese community in Chicago, or with the nearby African-American community that the hospital served.

9

Markxxx. Since most of us who have access to incredible searchable databases have come up dry, I think you should go to the Chicago Public, and do a manual search of city directories, starting with 1955 and going backward. Look for the name “Burg” and hope you find a Louise. She could have been a wife/daughter who died and the hospital was named for her. You might have to go back 20-30 years. I’ve had luck doing things like this.

10

I had a friend look at Ancestry.com. The Social Security Death Index shows a Louise Burg, born 1905 in Connecticut, died 1978 in Hartford, Connecticut. That’s probably the same woman who was in nurse training in Hartford in 1930, but her link to Chicago now seems very tenuous. The fact that she was a nurse might just be a coincidence.

11

Searching the Hartford Courant, Louise Burg still lived in Harford in 1959, when her mother died.
Her brother died in 1975, and she was still in Hartford.

Since the hospital was named “Louise Burg” in or about 1954, not likely she’s our girl.

12

I got into Ancestry.com tonight and turned up a couple of other leads:

The 1930 Census showed a Louise Burg, age 17 (and her brother Irving, age 19) living with stepparents Rube & Dora Gelman, in Chicago. The Gelmans were Russian-born Jews.

A Louise P. Burg married Edward R. Martin in Cook County 19 Nov 1934.

Another Louise Burg, born 3 March 1923 in France, petitioned for U.S. citizenship in Dec 1946. At the time she lived at 1725 Jonquil Terrace in Chicago.

A friend reminded me that in the 1950s, married women would never have been known by their maiden names, even after death. Another possibility would be that it was named to honor a teenage daughter who had died, much like the Leland Stanford Jr. University. If so, there would be almost no records (except census, which might not yet be available) of her name.

13

Thanks for the suggestions. I’ve done manual searches of the Chicago Tribune and Daily News based on microfiche and dates. I have even found articles on the day of the change over to the Louise Burg Hospital, but none say who she is.

I find it odd that you have newspapers articles saying “Northwest Hospital” was renamed “John F Kennedy Medical Center,” after the late president. I mean really…LOL…You qualify that name but not the name of Louise Burg.

I’ll keep looking and let you know. It’s gotta be there by date.

14

Have one of you called or visited the Chicago History Museum? They may know something on this.

15

I understand your frustration, but a reporter isn’t gonna do much more than a quick search for their story. Since you and I and others, who have access to more info than any reporter that ever wrote a story about the hospital, it’s not surprising.

16

You could ask the American Hospital Association Resource Center. They are in Chicago and presumably know something about assorted hospitals’ history.

17

My DH suggested you see if you could find any financial reports for the hospital at the time period; maybe she gave a donation?

18

I talked to a friend who’s a librarian there. She felt I had checked most of the places she could think of to check.

19

i think the idea from the other message board that she is the dead young daughter of a wealthy businessman who founded the hospital in her name makes the most sense. It would explain the complete lack of life history or paper trail.

20

According to my family lore tied directly to the founding of Louise Burg Hospital at Archer and Cermak, the founder, Lewis Tanenbaum named the hospital to honor the death of the sister of his friend. Please e-mail me directly if you’d like more specific information.