In the year 1846 the Rev. W. A. Mulenberg, DD., pastor of the Church of the Holy Communion, deeply impressed with the neglect of the church generally in making no adequate provision for her sick poor, and believing that a hospital, conducted on more strictly religious principles than any in the city at the time, was greatly needed, presented the subject to his congregation at the festival of St. Luke, and informed them that with their consent he would set apart a portion of their collection that day toward the beginning a Church Hospital. Thirty dollars were accordingly laid aside, and on the return of the festival the next year another collection was taken. A parochial institution only was contemplated for several years, but as the enterprise came to be known it met with such unexpected favor, that its friends resolved to lay the matter before the Episcopalians of the city at large. In the winter of 1850 the two lectures previously delivered by Dr. Mulenberg in the Church of the Holy Communion were repeated in St. Paul's Chapel, and afterwards printed and widely circulated. On the first day of May, 1850, the St. Luke's Hospital was incorporated under the general act of Legislature passed April 12, 1848, committing the control of the institution to thirteen managers. In March,1851, the Legislature amended the charter, increasing the number of managers to thirty-one; and in February, 1854, it was again amended, granting the corporation permission to hold personal estate to the amount of $250,000, and real estate not exceeding $100,000, over and above the value of buildings and improvements erected thereon for the purposes of the corporation. About the time of its incorporation the managers, proposing to carry out their undertaking on a liberal scale, appealed to the public for $100,000. This amount was soon subscribed, and was mostly given in large sums. An eligible site of twenty-four city lots, situated on Fifth avenue and Fifty-fourth street, had been previously, for certain considerations on the part of Trinity Church, granted by the city corporation to the Church of St. George the Martyr, on condition that there should be erected thereon, within three years from the date of the grant, a hospital and free chapel for British emigrants. As the buildings had not been erected, and the land was soon to revert to the city, the managers of St. Luke's applied to the authorities for an extension of the time, which was finally granted, and after considerable negotiation the transfer of the title from the Church of St. George the Martyr was effected, on condition that the corporation of St. George should always be entitled to a certain number of free beds in the contemplated Hospital. Eight additional lots were also purchased at an average expense of $1,500 each; a plan for the building prepared by Mr. John W. Ritch was adopted; and in May, 1854, the corner-stone of the Hospital was laid, with appropriate services conducted by Bishop Wainwright. When the building was begun the managers only contemplated the erection of the central edifice and one wing, but they soon resolved to erect both wings, and accordingly appealed to the public for an additional hundred thousand dollars. On Ascension Day, 1857, the chapel, having been completed, was opened for divine service; and on May 13,1858, the Hospital proper was opened for the reception of patients.