Medical Clinic, 1922 – 1939

Though the majority of the clinic’s patients were treated for common ailments like colds, fevers, and stomach viruses, there were also serious medical emergencies and mental health crises. In January 1931, one of the Club’s residents contracted a cold that had been diagnosed as "the usual grippe." Her condition rapidly deteriorated and no beds could be found in French hospitals so she was taken to the American Hospital in Neuilly, where an x-ray revealed a "very deep double pneumonia which could not be found with the stethoscope." This unfortunate and unnamed resident died early the following morning. Dorothy Leet reported: "I feel so sorry about this, because she was such a poor little thing. Her parents are Protestant missionaries in Africa, and her life had been a complete sacrifice. She had worked too hard in school, so she could begin to support the family, and it is so pitiful to know the complete lack of any softening influences in her life. Her French friends and Madame Monod have all told us that her only days of happiness were those spent at the Club" (Report from Dorothy Leet to Virginia Gildersleeve, January 19, 1931, RH Archives). According to Leet, Marie Octave Monod expressed her conviction that everything that was humanly possible was done to save this young woman, "with heart energy, devotion and perfect clairvoyance." 

The Barnard College Archives preserve many of the clinic reports that Harriet Noyes submitted to Dorothy Leet, who also forwarded copies to Dean Gildersleeve in New York. One of the earliest reports, covering October 1929 – January 1930, described a remarkably low rate of illness, which Noyes attributed to the mild weather. She also noted that the clinic building was under construction so patients were being referred to a Dr. Bruno’s office, or to the American Hospital, including one young woman who was visiting her art student sister in Paris and had to undergo an emergency appendectomy. Noyes concluded this report with a description of a new mother, the wife of one of the art students in the neighborhood, who was going to bring her newborn to the clinic for advice on breastfeeding and for regular weight checks of the baby.

The report from January – April 1931 lists the high numbers of patients seen by Noyes at the clinic: 102 visits by patients at the clinic, 454 visits by Noyes to patients’ homes, 41 referrals to private physicians or to the American Hospital Clinic, and 12 patients transported to the American Hospital for serious care. Though most patients were suffering from grippe or intestinal disturbances, a Mlle. Ferrand, was treated for “influenza pneumonia” at the American Hospital and unfortunately died after three days. Four patients were “surgical cases” and there was one suspected case of tuberculosis under observation in the hospital. Noyes also acknowledged that since the spring weather had arrived, the number of colds had decreased but there was a “decided increase in the number of visits from students who are tired and nervous from overwork during the winter.”

Another report covering the quarter from October 1935 to February 1936 described instances of mental illness at Reid Hall and in the nearby community: "One neurotic patient, who caused considerable disturbance last year, returned this fall and quickly relapsed into much the same state. After a few days in the American Hospital she returned to the Club, but fortunately was persuaded to return home before Christmas. Another tragic case, an American woman who lives in a pension near the Club, was found in a semiconscious condition in her room. We helped to remove her to the American Hospital where it was discovered that she had tried to commit suicide by taking an over-dose of sleeping medicine. She is still in the hospital." 

Later reports, presumably written by successors of Miss Noyes, chronicle the range of medical problems that residents and members of the American community were experiencing. The February – June 1936 report highlights the demographic shift toward older residents at the Club: "There have been a great many older women living in the club this winter, and several of them have had re-occurring chronic disorders, such as sinus infections, digestive disturbances and annoying rheumatic pains."

Correspondence between Dorothy Leet and Virginia Gildersleeve in the Barnard College Archives and the Rare Book & Manuscript Library of Columbia University documents the evolution of the Reid Hall medical clinic, including proposed plans for its expansion. In a February 1929 letter, Leet suggested that it could become “a general clinic for American students,” which would necessitate hiring an architect to redesign and renovate the space (Barnard College Archives, BC 5.1, Dean’s Office Correspondence 1928 – 1929, Box 83). This expansion never took place, likely because of the infamous stock market crash a few months later, which precipitated a series of financial difficulties at Reid Hall. The first quarterly report of 1930 from Harriet Noyes reveals that the Maison Verte had been renovated at the end of 1929 and spruced up for the coming year thanks to the usual generosity of Elisabeth Mills Reid. 

Following Reid's death in 1931 and amid the ongoing worldwide financial crisis, clinic funds became sparse. A 1934 letter from Leet to Gildersleeve complained about Dean Beekman’s (Church of the Holy Trinity) attempts to raise money to establish the church’s own medical clinic, a redundancy in the eyes of Leet. She also noted that Beekman was spreading rumors about the imminent closure of the medical clinic at Reid Hall due to a lack of funds (Barnard College Archives, BC 5.1, Dean’s Office Correspondence 1934 – 1935, Box 123, Folder 94a).

Though Beekman might have been stirring up trouble in the community, he was not entirely incorrect about the clinic’s severe financial constraints. A letter in the Barnard Archives from Dean Gildersleeve to Helen Rogers Reid in June 1935 outlines the decision not to retain Harriet Noyes any longer, since the clinic would be supervised going forward by a cost-effective part-time nurse. 

As was the case for the entire University Women’s Club operation, the medical clinic’s services were halted at the onset of World War II. The Maison Verte became just another building in the sprawling complex at 4 rue de Chevreuse that was lent to the École Normale Supérieure des jeunes filles de Sèvres for the duration of the war. 

The medical clinic at Reid Hall never reopened, even when the property transitioned to a study-abroad facility in 1947. Parisian infrastructure had modernized after the war and medical care was much more readily accessible, even to foreign students. The Maison Verte was converted to a classroom.