Brookdale Hospital, now one of the largest nonprofit voluntary teaching hospitals in Brooklyn, began as one small building rising amidst the vacant fields and scattered farms where the towns of Brownsville, East New York and Canarsie come together.

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Today, the hospital covers a 10-acre campus plus six Brookdale Family Care Centers. The original building has endured and so, too, has the spirit and philosophy of those who struggled to build, equip, and staff what they termed a "haven of healing" for all in need.