Clark Park (formerly Satterlee General Hospital)

Established in 1895, Clark Park is a nine-acre landscape in the Spruce Hill neighborhood. This community park contains over three hundred mature trees and was founded on the site of a former military hospital used during the Civil War. The Satterlee General Hospital treated 60,000 Union soldiers from the time of its founding in 1862 to the end of the Civil War in 1865, when the hospital was officially closed. The facility was fully dismantled and converted into a residential neighborhood and park during the mid-1890s. A monument known as the Gettysburg Stone was placed in the park in 1916. It honors the Union soldiers who fought at Gettysburg in 1863, and it is also dedicated to the surgeons, doctors, and nurses who treated the sick and wounded following the battle. Today, Clark Park is all that remains of the once sixteen-acre Satterlee Hospital. The park is currently a space for community engagement and outdoor recreation, with basketball courts, playgrounds, festivals, theater productions, and a year-round farmers market. A non-profit theater company, Shakespeare in Clark Park, offers free outdoor performances each summer. Notably, the landscape also includes a life-size statue of the nineteenth-century British author, Charles Dickens, who is depicted conversing with a character from one of his novels.

Established in 1895, Clark Park was named for the first president of the First National Bank and the founder of the Union League, Clarence H. Clark, who owned the land where the park is located. This green space is situated within the residential Spruce Hill neighborhood in west Philadelphia and bordered by neighboring institutions such as the University of the Sciences, the HMS School for Children with Cerebral Palsy, and the City of Philadelphia District Health Center. The Spruce Hill neighborhood is adjacent to the Squirrel Hill to the south and University City to the northeast.

Clark Park features a bronze statue of the nineteenth-century British author, Charles Dickens. He is depicted sitting in a chair and conversing with Little Nell Trent, a character from his novel, The Old Curiosity Shop (1841), which was set in Victorian England. The statue was installed in the park in 1900, after being featured in several art exhibitions. It is believed to be the only life-sized statue of Charles Dickens anywhere in the world. In addition, a non-profit theater company, Shakespeare in Clark Park, presents free outdoor productions of William Shakespeare's plays in the park each summer. The first season in 2005 drew an audience of two thousand people to watch the Twelfth Night. Since then, Shakespeare in Clark Park has sustained a commitment to public art and community engagement without charging a penny. During the theater company's inaugural season, The Philadelphia Inquirer praised how the park was integrated into the outdoor set, stating:

"Clark Park is not just a venue, but a real place, where a perfectly shaped, immense tree provides a set of real theatricality. The actors come down the hill into their next scene, and darkness falls just as the plot turns grim. The company has cobbled together, with borrowed footlights and generosity of talent, a real treat for a summer evening."

Yet, this landscape was not always the site of summer festivals, farmers markets, and leisurely recreation. From 1863 to 1865, the land on which Clark Park is located was the site of the Satterlee General Hospital, the largest Union hospital during the Civil War and the largest Army hospital in the country. It was built in 1862 and named for Dr. Richard Sherwood Satterlee, a veteran of the Mexican American War. The facility was designed by the Union Surgeon General, Dr. William Hammond, whose plans for open air pavilion-style buildings were intended to help limit the spread of disease, during an era in which germ theory was still being formalized. The construction of the hospital in a wooded area outside the city of Philadelphia was thought to offer better air quality and a therapeutic setting that would encourage healing and recovery.

The American Battlefield Trust has described Satterlee Hospital as "a modern marvel in the Civil War." The 2,500-bed facility was comprised of various pavilions and tents overseen by Dr. Isaac Israel Hayes, a former Arctic explorer who was accustomed to intense life-or-death environments. Nuns from the Roman Catholic Sisters of Charity volunteered to live on site so that they could tend to the wounded and sick patients, supplementing the medical care provided by the hospital's own doctors and nurses. In addition to the medical facilities, there was a library reading room, barber shop, dispensary, carpenter shop, post office, and printing office for a regular newspaper bulletin, The Hospital Register. With a fourteen-foot wall that surrounded the entire complex, the hospital was essentially a small city, operating on sixteen acres of land.

After the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, the hospital's intake of patients swelled to 4,500, almost doubling in size compared to the facility's capacity and available beds. Although the hospital was officially closed on August 3, 1865, it was not fully dismantled until the 1890s, at which time the land was converted by the city into a residential neighborhood and park. In the early twentieth century, a memorial was installed at Clark Park, dedicated to the Union soldiers who received medical care at Satterlee Hospital following the Battle of Gettysburg. The Gettysburg Stone, which was placed in the park in 1916, also honors the surgeons, doctors, and nurses, who treated more than sixty thousand soldiers from the hospital's founding in 1862 to the end of the Civil War in 1865. Today, Clark Park is the only remaining vestige of Satterlee General Hospital.

About the Park, Friends of Clark Park. Accessed December 14th, 2022. http://www.friendsofclarkpark.org/about-clark-park/.

Clark Park , Visit Philadelphia. Accessed December 14th, 2022. https://www.visitphilly.com/things-to-do/attractions/clark-park/.

Best Parks in Philadelphia, Visit Philadelphia. Accessed December 14th, 2022. https://www.visitphilly.com/articles/philadelphia/best-parks-in-philadelphia/.

Shakespeare in Clark Park, Shakespeare in Clark Park. Accessed December 15th, 2022. http://www.shakespeareinclarkpark.org/.

Satterlee Hospital, Friends of Clark Park. Accessed December 15th, 2022. http://www.friendsofclarkpark.org/about-clark-park/satterlee-hospital/.

Satterlee General Hospital, American Battlefield Trust. Accessed December 15th, 2022. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/satterlee-general-hospital.