Grace Hospital

01 / The story of this place

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Grace Hospital opened on December 7, 1888, at John R and Willis streets, named for Grace McMillan Jarvis, daughter of its founder, the industrialist and later U.S. Senator James McMillan. Gordon W. Lloyd designed the original building, and a large wing was added in 1910. In late October 1926 Harry Houdini, the escape artist born Weisz Erik in Budapest, was brought here after falling ill during his engagement at the Garrick Theatre. Doctors operated on his ruptured appendix, but peritonitis had set in, and he died in Room 401 on October 31, 1926, Halloween, at the age of 52. Grace went on to become, by 1964, the second-largest nonprofit hospital in Michigan, and in 1985 it joined other hospitals to form the Detroit Medical Center. The original building was judged obsolete and demolished in 1979; the site is now a parking lot. The Grace name lives on in Sinai-Grace Hospital in northwest Detroit.

1. Opened December 7, 1888; named for Grace McMillan Jarvis
2. Harry Houdini died here in Room 401 on October 31, 1926
3. Joined other hospitals to form the Detroit Medical Center in 1985
4. Original building demolished in 1979; the site is a parking lot