Founder of Alexander Blain Hospital
Founder of Michigan Audubon Society
Alexander W. Blain, M.D., F.A.C.S., prominent surgeon, was born in Detroit on March 4, 1885. His father, Alexander W. Blain, Sr., is of Scotch parentage and was born in Canada, while his mother, who bore the maiden name of Mary Gray, was born in Scotland but left the land of hills and heather when quite young, accompanied by her parents, to the new world. Alexander W. Blain, Sr., has been well known in Detroit for the past fifty years as a landscape gardener. He was at one time president of the park and boulevard board. During the Civil war he served for three years in defense of the Union and has always been as loyal to the interests and welfare of his country as when he followed the nation's starry banner on the battlefields of the south. To him and his wife have been born five children: Daisy M.; William J., formerly of Los Angeles, now deceased; Dr. J. Harvey, a dentist of Detroit; Bethune Duffield, an attorney; and Alexander W. Blain, Jr., the subject of this sketch.
Dr. Blain, the youngest of the family, obtained his early education in the Detroit public and high schools. He later entered the Detroit College of Medicine and Surgery, from which he was graduated with the class of 1906. Deciding early on a surgical career, he became assistant to the late Dr. H. O. Walker and served three years in that capacity. Following his graduation he became a member of the interne staff of Harper Hospital, where he remained for two years, the last as chief of the resident staff. Upon the completion of his interne service he visited the leading American surgical clinics and returned to Detroit to enter private practice. Since that time his rise to prominence has been very rapid. He was made junior attending surgeon to Harper Hospital and an instructor in his Alma Mater. Dr. Blain is now associate professor of surgery in the school from which he graduated and senior attending surgeon to St. Mary's Hospital.
Dr. Blain has been a frequent contributor to medical literature, having published over fifty contributions to medical and scientific journals. He has also served as associate editor on the Detroit Medical Journal, The Physician and Surgeon (Ann Arbor), and the International Journal of Surgery (New York). He was for two years editor of the Leucocyte.
Aside from his medical activities, Dr. Blain has taken a keen interest in other scientific subjects, particularly ornithology, the science of birds, and was for three years editor of the Bulletin of the Michigan Ornithological Club. His interest in scientific subjects is further evidenced by his membership in the Michigan Academy of Science, American Ornithologists Society, Wilson Ornithological Club, Royal Society of Arts (London, England). In 1906 he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
His surgical work, however, has claimed the major part of his time and energy and to attain the highest degree of efficiency possible in the filed he has taken various postgraduate courses in the principal medical and surgical centers of Europe, as well as America.
He is a member of the Wayne County, the Michigan State and the American Medical Associations. He is a charter member of the Detroit Academy of Surgery. He was one of the four hundred surgeons who med in Washington in 1913 to organize the American College of Surgeons, of which he is a fellow.
Dr. Blain is a member of the Detroit Club, Detroit Athletic Club, Detroit Yacht Club, the Essex Golf Club, Detroit Board of Commerce, and the Royal Societies' Club (London, England). Fraternally he is identified with Zion Lodge, F. & A.M.; King Cyprus Chapter, R.A.M.; Detroit Commandery No. 1, K.T.; Michigan Sovereign Consistory; and the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Greek letter society, Nu Sigma Nu.
On the 14th day of June, 1917, Dr. Blain was married to Ruby Johnson, of Detroit, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Johnson, and they have two children: Alexander W. (III), born in 1918; and Shirley Ruth, born in 1919.
In 1911 Dr. Blain, desiring to improve methods of diagnosis and treatment, organized the Jefferson Clinic. The constant growth of that organization since, has been evidence of the value of the idea. Dr. Blain maintained that specialists should not be isolated, but should work together so that the patient could have the benefit of specialists working in various lines. The advent of the X-ray laboratory and the progress made in physics and physiological chemistry are likewise factors in perfecting diagnosis. In 1918 the Phillips McMillan home at Jefferson and Dubois was purchased by Dr. BLain and transformed into a medical and surgical building, with laboratories, consultation and treatment rooms. Over five thousand patients were treated in the past year, coming in many cases from several states and Canada. "Group Medicine", says Dr. Blain, "will not supplant the general practitioner, but in the future specialists will work in close harmony and the cases of difficult diagnosis will have the benefit of the several specialists at one time in the completion of diagnosis rather than to be referred to several isolated specialists. The expense incident to the latter method has made modern scientific treatment prohibitive, particularly to the middle class of people --- the backbone of our country. Under 'Group Medicine' the highest type of medical care is brought within reach not only of the very rich but to those in all walks of life."
From "The City of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Volume 5 (1922), by Clarence Monroe Burton.
BLAIN, Alexander W., surgeon; born, Detroit; son of Alexander William and Mary G. (Gray) Blain; M.D., Detroit College of Medicine, 1906; unmarried. Assistant to Dr. H. O. Walker, 1903-6; house physician, 1906-7, senior resident surgeon, 1907-8, member visiting staff, 1908-10, Harper Hospital; attending surgeon Harper Hospital Polyclinic, 1910-13; surgeon Detroit Shipbuilding Co. since 1912; lecturer on pathology, Detroit College of Medicine and Surgery. First lieutenant and surgeon Reserve Corps United States Army. Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science, American College of Surgeons; member American Medical Association, Wayne County Medical Society (chairman surgical section), Royal Society of Arts (England), Alumni Society Harper Hospital, Nu Sigma Nu. Mason (Michigan Sovereign Consistory, K. T., Shrine). Clubs: Detroit, Detroit Yacht, Royal Societies Club (London, Eng.). Author: Surgery of the Neck, 1913; also numerous articles on surgery in medical journals. Collaborating editor, International Journal of Surgery (New York), and Detroit Medical Journal. Recreation: natural history study. Office and Residence: 1105 Jefferson Avenue.
From "The Detroiters" book of 1909.
From the December 15, 1958, Detroit Free Press:
Dr. Blain Dies In His Hospital. He served terms as president and was consulting surgeon at of the Michigan Horticultural DR. BLAIN served on the Society and Detroit Science Society. At the time of his death, he was a director of the Detroit Zoological Society, and the Cranbrook Institute of Science. Among his medical aid science societies were those of Nu Sigma No, Alpha Omega Alpha and Sigma XI. His Masonic affiliations were editorial boards of several medical journals. He also was a past president of the Michigan Audubon Society which he founded in the state more than 50 years ago. Zion Lodge, No. 1, F&AM, A Detroit Commandery, K.T., and Moslem Temple Shrine. His clubs Included the Detroit Club, the Detroit Athletic Club, the Boat Club and the Noon Tide Club. " Dr. Blain married the former Ruby Johnson, with whom he made his home at 1028 Berkshire, Grosse Polnte Park. He found lasting pleasure in his country home and wild life preserve on Blain Island, in Lotus Lake, near W'aterford. There, he maintained the sanctuary for animal and bird life in all possible forms, a throwback to his boyhood ambition. Deer, buffalo, and bear are there, along with the snakes. Dr. Alexander Blain owls, raccoons and birds who deck his tree were the subjects of his X-ray pictures. ONE OF Dr. Blain's greatest efforts, a project which engaged the last days of his life, was the establishment on the third floor of the Old City Hall of a Detroit Natural History Museum. He had It well under way when he died. Beside his wife, Dr. Blain also is survived by two sons. Dr. Alexander W. Blain III, and Dr. Donald Gray Blain, a daughter, Mrs. Robert E. L. Berry, and a brother, Bethune Duffleld Blain. There are 10 grandchildren. Funeral services for Dr.Blain will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday In the chapel of the i William R. Hamilton Co., 3975 Cass at Alexandrine. Burial in will be at Elmwood Cemetery. Officiating at the service will be the Rev. Frank Fitt, now retired, of Ann Arbor, former minister of Grosse Pointe Memorial Church. Pallbearers will be active members of the Blain Hospital medical staff. The family suggests memorial tributes may be sent to the Wayne State University Medical Library Fund. 1510 Washington Blvd.
Alexander Blain Hospital
By Dan Austin of HistoricDetroit.org
"This hospital got its start when Dr. Alexander W. Blain, a prominent Detroit surgeon at Harper Hospital, opened a group medical clinic in 1911, "desiring to improve methods of diagnosis and treatment," Clarence M. Burton wrote in his "The City of Detroit, Michigan."
Dr. Blain was born March 4, 1885, in Detroit at the residence at Elmwood Cemetery, where his father was superintendent. The Eastern High School graduate founded the Michigan Audubon Society in 1904, two years before the Detroit native graduated from the Detroit College of Medicine. His career as a physician grew out of his ambition to be a naturalist. Though he was known for his skills operating on humans, he was said to always find time to mend a bird's injured wing.
"Dr. Blain maintained that specialists should not be isolated, but should work together so that the patient could have the benefit of specialists working in various lines," Burton continued.
In 1918, Blain moved his clinic into this building, originally a home built in 1892 for J.H. McMillan and designed by Mason & Rice. The structure, at East Jefferson Avenue and Dubois Street, was transformed into a medical and surgical building, with labs and consultation and treatment rooms. By 1922, Blain's clinic was seeing more than 5,000 patients a year, including some from others states and Canada.
The following year, the clinic's booming business would see it become a 50-bed general hospital, and renamed the Jefferson Clinic and Diagnostic Hospital.
On Oct. 10, 1936, Blain announced that he was renaming the hospital in the memory of his father, Alexander W. Blain Sr., who had died two years earlier at age 92.
At the time of the renaming, it was one of the oldest private clinics in the Midwest.
In 1942, it became a nonprofit, public-oriented institution.
Dr. Blain continued to serve as director and surgeon until 1953, serving thereafter as a consultant until he died Dec. 14, 1958. He died at age 73 at his own hospital. He was laid to rest at Elmwood, returning to where he was born.
When he died, the Detroit Free Press Editorial Board eulogized him, saying, "Dr. Blain was a healer and the health and welfare of his fellow humans were his first concern. His name ranks high among the great practitioners of this City and his loss will be felt by thousands of friends and admirers in all walks of civic life."
On Nov. 16, 1967, Mayor Jerome Cavanagh placed the cornerstone for a million-dollar, modern addition to the west side of the original building. This addition was designed by the firm Bennett & Straight. The contractor was Englehardt, Buettner and Holt.
But times were changing in the hospital industry, as the country was seeing a national trend away from independent hospitals and toward larger, multi-hospital corporations. Blain had been absorbed by the Detroit-Macomb Hospitals Corp.
As Detroit entered the 1980s, it also was deemed that there was an excess number of beds in southeast Michigan. Because extra hospitals and beds increase health-care costs, and because hospitals often tried to fill those beds with people who did not need to be hospitalized, the state sought to close and consolidate.
In 1981, the Comprehensive Health Planning Agency of Southeastern Michigan approved a bed-reduction plan that called for the getting rid of Blain and another of Detroit-Macomb Hospitals' locations, the Charles Godwin Jennings Hospital. Detroit-Macomb sued, and the CHPASM agreed out of court to support combining Jennings and Blain into one hospital, thus reducing the number of beds in the region.
In 1984, a proposed 315-bed Jennings-Blain Memorial Hospital was proposed for the corner of East Jefferson and Seyburn. It was to be finished in 1986 and replace the 117-bed Blain, the 300-bed Detroit Memorial Hospital on St. Antoine, and the 126-bed Jennings Hospital.
The old Blain building closed in 1987 and the original section of the building was then demolished.
Blain-Jennings was later merged into the St. John Health System.
In August 1997, the Detroit Free Press reported that the 1968 addition would be converted into a 66,000-square-foot office facility. That portion survives today and is home to the Detroit Police Department's Gaming Division."
Founder of Michigan Audubon Society
Alexander W. Blain, M.D., F.A.C.S., prominent surgeon, was born in Detroit on March 4, 1885. His father, Alexander W. Blain, Sr., is of Scotch parentage and was born in Canada, while his mother, who bore the maiden name of Mary Gray, was born in Scotland but left the land of hills and heather when quite young, accompanied by her parents, to the new world. Alexander W. Blain, Sr., has been well known in Detroit for the past fifty years as a landscape gardener. He was at one time president of the park and boulevard board. During the Civil war he served for three years in defense of the Union and has always been as loyal to the interests and welfare of his country as when he followed the nation's starry banner on the battlefields of the south. To him and his wife have been born five children: Daisy M.; William J., formerly of Los Angeles, now deceased; Dr. J. Harvey, a dentist of Detroit; Bethune Duffield, an attorney; and Alexander W. Blain, Jr., the subject of this sketch.
Dr. Blain, the youngest of the family, obtained his early education in the Detroit public and high schools. He later entered the Detroit College of Medicine and Surgery, from which he was graduated with the class of 1906. Deciding early on a surgical career, he became assistant to the late Dr. H. O. Walker and served three years in that capacity. Following his graduation he became a member of the interne staff of Harper Hospital, where he remained for two years, the last as chief of the resident staff. Upon the completion of his interne service he visited the leading American surgical clinics and returned to Detroit to enter private practice. Since that time his rise to prominence has been very rapid. He was made junior attending surgeon to Harper Hospital and an instructor in his Alma Mater. Dr. Blain is now associate professor of surgery in the school from which he graduated and senior attending surgeon to St. Mary's Hospital.
Dr. Blain has been a frequent contributor to medical literature, having published over fifty contributions to medical and scientific journals. He has also served as associate editor on the Detroit Medical Journal, The Physician and Surgeon (Ann Arbor), and the International Journal of Surgery (New York). He was for two years editor of the Leucocyte.
Aside from his medical activities, Dr. Blain has taken a keen interest in other scientific subjects, particularly ornithology, the science of birds, and was for three years editor of the Bulletin of the Michigan Ornithological Club. His interest in scientific subjects is further evidenced by his membership in the Michigan Academy of Science, American Ornithologists Society, Wilson Ornithological Club, Royal Society of Arts (London, England). In 1906 he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
His surgical work, however, has claimed the major part of his time and energy and to attain the highest degree of efficiency possible in the filed he has taken various postgraduate courses in the principal medical and surgical centers of Europe, as well as America.
He is a member of the Wayne County, the Michigan State and the American Medical Associations. He is a charter member of the Detroit Academy of Surgery. He was one of the four hundred surgeons who med in Washington in 1913 to organize the American College of Surgeons, of which he is a fellow.
Dr. Blain is a member of the Detroit Club, Detroit Athletic Club, Detroit Yacht Club, the Essex Golf Club, Detroit Board of Commerce, and the Royal Societies' Club (London, England). Fraternally he is identified with Zion Lodge, F. & A.M.; King Cyprus Chapter, R.A.M.; Detroit Commandery No. 1, K.T.; Michigan Sovereign Consistory; and the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Greek letter society, Nu Sigma Nu.
On the 14th day of June, 1917, Dr. Blain was married to Ruby Johnson, of Detroit, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Johnson, and they have two children: Alexander W. (III), born in 1918; and Shirley Ruth, born in 1919.
In 1911 Dr. Blain, desiring to improve methods of diagnosis and treatment, organized the Jefferson Clinic. The constant growth of that organization since, has been evidence of the value of the idea. Dr. Blain maintained that specialists should not be isolated, but should work together so that the patient could have the benefit of specialists working in various lines. The advent of the X-ray laboratory and the progress made in physics and physiological chemistry are likewise factors in perfecting diagnosis. In 1918 the Phillips McMillan home at Jefferson and Dubois was purchased by Dr. BLain and transformed into a medical and surgical building, with laboratories, consultation and treatment rooms. Over five thousand patients were treated in the past year, coming in many cases from several states and Canada. "Group Medicine", says Dr. Blain, "will not supplant the general practitioner, but in the future specialists will work in close harmony and the cases of difficult diagnosis will have the benefit of the several specialists at one time in the completion of diagnosis rather than to be referred to several isolated specialists. The expense incident to the latter method has made modern scientific treatment prohibitive, particularly to the middle class of people --- the backbone of our country. Under 'Group Medicine' the highest type of medical care is brought within reach not only of the very rich but to those in all walks of life."
From "The City of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Volume 5 (1922), by Clarence Monroe Burton.
BLAIN, Alexander W., surgeon; born, Detroit; son of Alexander William and Mary G. (Gray) Blain; M.D., Detroit College of Medicine, 1906; unmarried. Assistant to Dr. H. O. Walker, 1903-6; house physician, 1906-7, senior resident surgeon, 1907-8, member visiting staff, 1908-10, Harper Hospital; attending surgeon Harper Hospital Polyclinic, 1910-13; surgeon Detroit Shipbuilding Co. since 1912; lecturer on pathology, Detroit College of Medicine and Surgery. First lieutenant and surgeon Reserve Corps United States Army. Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science, American College of Surgeons; member American Medical Association, Wayne County Medical Society (chairman surgical section), Royal Society of Arts (England), Alumni Society Harper Hospital, Nu Sigma Nu. Mason (Michigan Sovereign Consistory, K. T., Shrine). Clubs: Detroit, Detroit Yacht, Royal Societies Club (London, Eng.). Author: Surgery of the Neck, 1913; also numerous articles on surgery in medical journals. Collaborating editor, International Journal of Surgery (New York), and Detroit Medical Journal. Recreation: natural history study. Office and Residence: 1105 Jefferson Avenue.
From "The Detroiters" book of 1909.
From the December 15, 1958, Detroit Free Press:
Dr. Blain Dies In His Hospital. He served terms as president and was consulting surgeon at of the Michigan Horticultural DR. BLAIN served on the Society and Detroit Science Society. At the time of his death, he was a director of the Detroit Zoological Society, and the Cranbrook Institute of Science. Among his medical aid science societies were those of Nu Sigma No, Alpha Omega Alpha and Sigma XI. His Masonic affiliations were editorial boards of several medical journals. He also was a past president of the Michigan Audubon Society which he founded in the state more than 50 years ago. Zion Lodge, No. 1, F&AM, A Detroit Commandery, K.T., and Moslem Temple Shrine. His clubs Included the Detroit Club, the Detroit Athletic Club, the Boat Club and the Noon Tide Club. " Dr. Blain married the former Ruby Johnson, with whom he made his home at 1028 Berkshire, Grosse Polnte Park. He found lasting pleasure in his country home and wild life preserve on Blain Island, in Lotus Lake, near W'aterford. There, he maintained the sanctuary for animal and bird life in all possible forms, a throwback to his boyhood ambition. Deer, buffalo, and bear are there, along with the snakes. Dr. Alexander Blain owls, raccoons and birds who deck his tree were the subjects of his X-ray pictures. ONE OF Dr. Blain's greatest efforts, a project which engaged the last days of his life, was the establishment on the third floor of the Old City Hall of a Detroit Natural History Museum. He had It well under way when he died. Beside his wife, Dr. Blain also is survived by two sons. Dr. Alexander W. Blain III, and Dr. Donald Gray Blain, a daughter, Mrs. Robert E. L. Berry, and a brother, Bethune Duffleld Blain. There are 10 grandchildren. Funeral services for Dr.Blain will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday In the chapel of the i William R. Hamilton Co., 3975 Cass at Alexandrine. Burial in will be at Elmwood Cemetery. Officiating at the service will be the Rev. Frank Fitt, now retired, of Ann Arbor, former minister of Grosse Pointe Memorial Church. Pallbearers will be active members of the Blain Hospital medical staff. The family suggests memorial tributes may be sent to the Wayne State University Medical Library Fund. 1510 Washington Blvd.
Alexander Blain Hospital
By Dan Austin of HistoricDetroit.org
"This hospital got its start when Dr. Alexander W. Blain, a prominent Detroit surgeon at Harper Hospital, opened a group medical clinic in 1911, "desiring to improve methods of diagnosis and treatment," Clarence M. Burton wrote in his "The City of Detroit, Michigan."
Dr. Blain was born March 4, 1885, in Detroit at the residence at Elmwood Cemetery, where his father was superintendent. The Eastern High School graduate founded the Michigan Audubon Society in 1904, two years before the Detroit native graduated from the Detroit College of Medicine. His career as a physician grew out of his ambition to be a naturalist. Though he was known for his skills operating on humans, he was said to always find time to mend a bird's injured wing.
"Dr. Blain maintained that specialists should not be isolated, but should work together so that the patient could have the benefit of specialists working in various lines," Burton continued.
In 1918, Blain moved his clinic into this building, originally a home built in 1892 for J.H. McMillan and designed by Mason & Rice. The structure, at East Jefferson Avenue and Dubois Street, was transformed into a medical and surgical building, with labs and consultation and treatment rooms. By 1922, Blain's clinic was seeing more than 5,000 patients a year, including some from others states and Canada.
The following year, the clinic's booming business would see it become a 50-bed general hospital, and renamed the Jefferson Clinic and Diagnostic Hospital.
On Oct. 10, 1936, Blain announced that he was renaming the hospital in the memory of his father, Alexander W. Blain Sr., who had died two years earlier at age 92.
At the time of the renaming, it was one of the oldest private clinics in the Midwest.
In 1942, it became a nonprofit, public-oriented institution.
Dr. Blain continued to serve as director and surgeon until 1953, serving thereafter as a consultant until he died Dec. 14, 1958. He died at age 73 at his own hospital. He was laid to rest at Elmwood, returning to where he was born.
When he died, the Detroit Free Press Editorial Board eulogized him, saying, "Dr. Blain was a healer and the health and welfare of his fellow humans were his first concern. His name ranks high among the great practitioners of this City and his loss will be felt by thousands of friends and admirers in all walks of civic life."
On Nov. 16, 1967, Mayor Jerome Cavanagh placed the cornerstone for a million-dollar, modern addition to the west side of the original building. This addition was designed by the firm Bennett & Straight. The contractor was Englehardt, Buettner and Holt.
But times were changing in the hospital industry, as the country was seeing a national trend away from independent hospitals and toward larger, multi-hospital corporations. Blain had been absorbed by the Detroit-Macomb Hospitals Corp.
As Detroit entered the 1980s, it also was deemed that there was an excess number of beds in southeast Michigan. Because extra hospitals and beds increase health-care costs, and because hospitals often tried to fill those beds with people who did not need to be hospitalized, the state sought to close and consolidate.
In 1981, the Comprehensive Health Planning Agency of Southeastern Michigan approved a bed-reduction plan that called for the getting rid of Blain and another of Detroit-Macomb Hospitals' locations, the Charles Godwin Jennings Hospital. Detroit-Macomb sued, and the CHPASM agreed out of court to support combining Jennings and Blain into one hospital, thus reducing the number of beds in the region.
In 1984, a proposed 315-bed Jennings-Blain Memorial Hospital was proposed for the corner of East Jefferson and Seyburn. It was to be finished in 1986 and replace the 117-bed Blain, the 300-bed Detroit Memorial Hospital on St. Antoine, and the 126-bed Jennings Hospital.
The old Blain building closed in 1987 and the original section of the building was then demolished.
Blain-Jennings was later merged into the St. John Health System.
In August 1997, the Detroit Free Press reported that the 1968 addition would be converted into a 66,000-square-foot office facility. That portion survives today and is home to the Detroit Police Department's Gaming Division."
Founder of Alexander Blain Hospital
Founder of Michigan Audubon Society
Alexander W. Blain, M.D., F.A.C.S., prominent surgeon, was born in Detroit on March 4, 1885. His father, Alexander W. Blain, Sr., is of Scotch parentage and was born in Canada, while his mother, who bore the maiden name of Mary Gray, was born in Scotland but left the land of hills and heather when quite young, accompanied by her parents, to the new world. Alexander W. Blain, Sr., has been well known in Detroit for the past fifty years as a landscape gardener. He was at one time president of the park and boulevard board. During the Civil war he served for three years in defense of the Union and has always been as loyal to the interests and welfare of his country as when he followed the nation's starry banner on the battlefields of the south. To him and his wife have been born five children: Daisy M.; William J., formerly of Los Angeles, now deceased; Dr. J. Harvey, a dentist of Detroit; Bethune Duffield, an attorney; and Alexander W. Blain, Jr., the subject of this sketch.
Dr. Blain, the youngest of the family, obtained his early education in the Detroit public and high schools. He later entered the Detroit College of Medicine and Surgery, from which he was graduated with the class of 1906. Deciding early on a surgical career, he became assistant to the late Dr. H. O. Walker and served three years in that capacity. Following his graduation he became a member of the interne staff of Harper Hospital, where he remained for two years, the last as chief of the resident staff. Upon the completion of his interne service he visited the leading American surgical clinics and returned to Detroit to enter private practice. Since that time his rise to prominence has been very rapid. He was made junior attending surgeon to Harper Hospital and an instructor in his Alma Mater. Dr. Blain is now associate professor of surgery in the school from which he graduated and senior attending surgeon to St. Mary's Hospital.
Dr. Blain has been a frequent contributor to medical literature, having published over fifty contributions to medical and scientific journals. He has also served as associate editor on the Detroit Medical Journal, The Physician and Surgeon (Ann Arbor), and the International Journal of Surgery (New York). He was for two years editor of the Leucocyte.
Aside from his medical activities, Dr. Blain has taken a keen interest in other scientific subjects, particularly ornithology, the science of birds, and was for three years editor of the Bulletin of the Michigan Ornithological Club. His interest in scientific subjects is further evidenced by his membership in the Michigan Academy of Science, American Ornithologists Society, Wilson Ornithological Club, Royal Society of Arts (London, England). In 1906 he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
His surgical work, however, has claimed the major part of his time and energy and to attain the highest degree of efficiency possible in the filed he has taken various postgraduate courses in the principal medical and surgical centers of Europe, as well as America.
He is a member of the Wayne County, the Michigan State and the American Medical Associations. He is a charter member of the Detroit Academy of Surgery. He was one of the four hundred surgeons who med in Washington in 1913 to organize the American College of Surgeons, of which he is a fellow.
Dr. Blain is a member of the Detroit Club, Detroit Athletic Club, Detroit Yacht Club, the Essex Golf Club, Detroit Board of Commerce, and the Royal Societies' Club (London, England). Fraternally he is identified with Zion Lodge, F. & A.M.; King Cyprus Chapter, R.A.M.; Detroit Commandery No. 1, K.T.; Michigan Sovereign Consistory; and the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Greek letter society, Nu Sigma Nu.
On the 14th day of June, 1917, Dr. Blain was married to Ruby Johnson, of Detroit, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Johnson, and they have two children: Alexander W. (III), born in 1918; and Shirley Ruth, born in 1919.
In 1911 Dr. Blain, desiring to improve methods of diagnosis and treatment, organized the Jefferson Clinic. The constant growth of that organization since, has been evidence of the value of the idea. Dr. Blain maintained that specialists should not be isolated, but should work together so that the patient could have the benefit of specialists working in various lines. The advent of the X-ray laboratory and the progress made in physics and physiological chemistry are likewise factors in perfecting diagnosis. In 1918 the Phillips McMillan home at Jefferson and Dubois was purchased by Dr. BLain and transformed into a medical and surgical building, with laboratories, consultation and treatment rooms. Over five thousand patients were treated in the past year, coming in many cases from several states and Canada. "Group Medicine", says Dr. Blain, "will not supplant the general practitioner, but in the future specialists will work in close harmony and the cases of difficult diagnosis will have the benefit of the several specialists at one time in the completion of diagnosis rather than to be referred to several isolated specialists. The expense incident to the latter method has made modern scientific treatment prohibitive, particularly to the middle class of people --- the backbone of our country. Under 'Group Medicine' the highest type of medical care is brought within reach not only of the very rich but to those in all walks of life."
From "The City of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Volume 5 (1922), by Clarence Monroe Burton.
BLAIN, Alexander W., surgeon; born, Detroit; son of Alexander William and Mary G. (Gray) Blain; M.D., Detroit College of Medicine, 1906; unmarried. Assistant to Dr. H. O. Walker, 1903-6; house physician, 1906-7, senior resident surgeon, 1907-8, member visiting staff, 1908-10, Harper Hospital; attending surgeon Harper Hospital Polyclinic, 1910-13; surgeon Detroit Shipbuilding Co. since 1912; lecturer on pathology, Detroit College of Medicine and Surgery. First lieutenant and surgeon Reserve Corps United States Army. Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science, American College of Surgeons; member American Medical Association, Wayne County Medical Society (chairman surgical section), Royal Society of Arts (England), Alumni Society Harper Hospital, Nu Sigma Nu. Mason (Michigan Sovereign Consistory, K. T., Shrine). Clubs: Detroit, Detroit Yacht, Royal Societies Club (London, Eng.). Author: Surgery of the Neck, 1913; also numerous articles on surgery in medical journals. Collaborating editor, International Journal of Surgery (New York), and Detroit Medical Journal. Recreation: natural history study. Office and Residence: 1105 Jefferson Avenue.
From "The Detroiters" book of 1909.
From the December 15, 1958, Detroit Free Press:
Dr. Blain Dies In His Hospital. He served terms as president and was consulting surgeon at of the Michigan Horticultural DR. BLAIN served on the Society and Detroit Science Society. At the time of his death, he was a director of the Detroit Zoological Society, and the Cranbrook Institute of Science. Among his medical aid science societies were those of Nu Sigma No, Alpha Omega Alpha and Sigma XI. His Masonic affiliations were editorial boards of several medical journals. He also was a past president of the Michigan Audubon Society which he founded in the state more than 50 years ago. Zion Lodge, No. 1, F&AM, A Detroit Commandery, K.T., and Moslem Temple Shrine. His clubs Included the Detroit Club, the Detroit Athletic Club, the Boat Club and the Noon Tide Club. " Dr. Blain married the former Ruby Johnson, with whom he made his home at 1028 Berkshire, Grosse Polnte Park. He found lasting pleasure in his country home and wild life preserve on Blain Island, in Lotus Lake, near W'aterford. There, he maintained the sanctuary for animal and bird life in all possible forms, a throwback to his boyhood ambition. Deer, buffalo, and bear are there, along with the snakes. Dr. Alexander Blain owls, raccoons and birds who deck his tree were the subjects of his X-ray pictures. ONE OF Dr. Blain's greatest efforts, a project which engaged the last days of his life, was the establishment on the third floor of the Old City Hall of a Detroit Natural History Museum. He had It well under way when he died. Beside his wife, Dr. Blain also is survived by two sons. Dr. Alexander W. Blain III, and Dr. Donald Gray Blain, a daughter, Mrs. Robert E. L. Berry, and a brother, Bethune Duffleld Blain. There are 10 grandchildren. Funeral services for Dr.Blain will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday In the chapel of the i William R. Hamilton Co., 3975 Cass at Alexandrine. Burial in will be at Elmwood Cemetery. Officiating at the service will be the Rev. Frank Fitt, now retired, of Ann Arbor, former minister of Grosse Pointe Memorial Church. Pallbearers will be active members of the Blain Hospital medical staff. The family suggests memorial tributes may be sent to the Wayne State University Medical Library Fund. 1510 Washington Blvd.
Alexander Blain Hospital
By Dan Austin of HistoricDetroit.org
"This hospital got its start when Dr. Alexander W. Blain, a prominent Detroit surgeon at Harper Hospital, opened a group medical clinic in 1911, "desiring to improve methods of diagnosis and treatment," Clarence M. Burton wrote in his "The City of Detroit, Michigan."
Dr. Blain was born March 4, 1885, in Detroit at the residence at Elmwood Cemetery, where his father was superintendent. The Eastern High School graduate founded the Michigan Audubon Society in 1904, two years before the Detroit native graduated from the Detroit College of Medicine. His career as a physician grew out of his ambition to be a naturalist. Though he was known for his skills operating on humans, he was said to always find time to mend a bird's injured wing.
"Dr. Blain maintained that specialists should not be isolated, but should work together so that the patient could have the benefit of specialists working in various lines," Burton continued.
In 1918, Blain moved his clinic into this building, originally a home built in 1892 for J.H. McMillan and designed by Mason & Rice. The structure, at East Jefferson Avenue and Dubois Street, was transformed into a medical and surgical building, with labs and consultation and treatment rooms. By 1922, Blain's clinic was seeing more than 5,000 patients a year, including some from others states and Canada.
The following year, the clinic's booming business would see it become a 50-bed general hospital, and renamed the Jefferson Clinic and Diagnostic Hospital.
On Oct. 10, 1936, Blain announced that he was renaming the hospital in the memory of his father, Alexander W. Blain Sr., who had died two years earlier at age 92.
At the time of the renaming, it was one of the oldest private clinics in the Midwest.
In 1942, it became a nonprofit, public-oriented institution.
Dr. Blain continued to serve as director and surgeon until 1953, serving thereafter as a consultant until he died Dec. 14, 1958. He died at age 73 at his own hospital. He was laid to rest at Elmwood, returning to where he was born.
When he died, the Detroit Free Press Editorial Board eulogized him, saying, "Dr. Blain was a healer and the health and welfare of his fellow humans were his first concern. His name ranks high among the great practitioners of this City and his loss will be felt by thousands of friends and admirers in all walks of civic life."
On Nov. 16, 1967, Mayor Jerome Cavanagh placed the cornerstone for a million-dollar, modern addition to the west side of the original building. This addition was designed by the firm Bennett & Straight. The contractor was Englehardt, Buettner and Holt.
But times were changing in the hospital industry, as the country was seeing a national trend away from independent hospitals and toward larger, multi-hospital corporations. Blain had been absorbed by the Detroit-Macomb Hospitals Corp.
As Detroit entered the 1980s, it also was deemed that there was an excess number of beds in southeast Michigan. Because extra hospitals and beds increase health-care costs, and because hospitals often tried to fill those beds with people who did not need to be hospitalized, the state sought to close and consolidate.
In 1981, the Comprehensive Health Planning Agency of Southeastern Michigan approved a bed-reduction plan that called for the getting rid of Blain and another of Detroit-Macomb Hospitals' locations, the Charles Godwin Jennings Hospital. Detroit-Macomb sued, and the CHPASM agreed out of court to support combining Jennings and Blain into one hospital, thus reducing the number of beds in the region.
In 1984, a proposed 315-bed Jennings-Blain Memorial Hospital was proposed for the corner of East Jefferson and Seyburn. It was to be finished in 1986 and replace the 117-bed Blain, the 300-bed Detroit Memorial Hospital on St. Antoine, and the 126-bed Jennings Hospital.
The old Blain building closed in 1987 and the original section of the building was then demolished.
Blain-Jennings was later merged into the St. John Health System.
In August 1997, the Detroit Free Press reported that the 1968 addition would be converted into a 66,000-square-foot office facility. That portion survives today and is home to the Detroit Police Department's Gaming Division."
Founder of Michigan Audubon Society
Alexander W. Blain, M.D., F.A.C.S., prominent surgeon, was born in Detroit on March 4, 1885. His father, Alexander W. Blain, Sr., is of Scotch parentage and was born in Canada, while his mother, who bore the maiden name of Mary Gray, was born in Scotland but left the land of hills and heather when quite young, accompanied by her parents, to the new world. Alexander W. Blain, Sr., has been well known in Detroit for the past fifty years as a landscape gardener. He was at one time president of the park and boulevard board. During the Civil war he served for three years in defense of the Union and has always been as loyal to the interests and welfare of his country as when he followed the nation's starry banner on the battlefields of the south. To him and his wife have been born five children: Daisy M.; William J., formerly of Los Angeles, now deceased; Dr. J. Harvey, a dentist of Detroit; Bethune Duffield, an attorney; and Alexander W. Blain, Jr., the subject of this sketch.
Dr. Blain, the youngest of the family, obtained his early education in the Detroit public and high schools. He later entered the Detroit College of Medicine and Surgery, from which he was graduated with the class of 1906. Deciding early on a surgical career, he became assistant to the late Dr. H. O. Walker and served three years in that capacity. Following his graduation he became a member of the interne staff of Harper Hospital, where he remained for two years, the last as chief of the resident staff. Upon the completion of his interne service he visited the leading American surgical clinics and returned to Detroit to enter private practice. Since that time his rise to prominence has been very rapid. He was made junior attending surgeon to Harper Hospital and an instructor in his Alma Mater. Dr. Blain is now associate professor of surgery in the school from which he graduated and senior attending surgeon to St. Mary's Hospital.
Dr. Blain has been a frequent contributor to medical literature, having published over fifty contributions to medical and scientific journals. He has also served as associate editor on the Detroit Medical Journal, The Physician and Surgeon (Ann Arbor), and the International Journal of Surgery (New York). He was for two years editor of the Leucocyte.
Aside from his medical activities, Dr. Blain has taken a keen interest in other scientific subjects, particularly ornithology, the science of birds, and was for three years editor of the Bulletin of the Michigan Ornithological Club. His interest in scientific subjects is further evidenced by his membership in the Michigan Academy of Science, American Ornithologists Society, Wilson Ornithological Club, Royal Society of Arts (London, England). In 1906 he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
His surgical work, however, has claimed the major part of his time and energy and to attain the highest degree of efficiency possible in the filed he has taken various postgraduate courses in the principal medical and surgical centers of Europe, as well as America.
He is a member of the Wayne County, the Michigan State and the American Medical Associations. He is a charter member of the Detroit Academy of Surgery. He was one of the four hundred surgeons who med in Washington in 1913 to organize the American College of Surgeons, of which he is a fellow.
Dr. Blain is a member of the Detroit Club, Detroit Athletic Club, Detroit Yacht Club, the Essex Golf Club, Detroit Board of Commerce, and the Royal Societies' Club (London, England). Fraternally he is identified with Zion Lodge, F. & A.M.; King Cyprus Chapter, R.A.M.; Detroit Commandery No. 1, K.T.; Michigan Sovereign Consistory; and the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Greek letter society, Nu Sigma Nu.
On the 14th day of June, 1917, Dr. Blain was married to Ruby Johnson, of Detroit, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Johnson, and they have two children: Alexander W. (III), born in 1918; and Shirley Ruth, born in 1919.
In 1911 Dr. Blain, desiring to improve methods of diagnosis and treatment, organized the Jefferson Clinic. The constant growth of that organization since, has been evidence of the value of the idea. Dr. Blain maintained that specialists should not be isolated, but should work together so that the patient could have the benefit of specialists working in various lines. The advent of the X-ray laboratory and the progress made in physics and physiological chemistry are likewise factors in perfecting diagnosis. In 1918 the Phillips McMillan home at Jefferson and Dubois was purchased by Dr. BLain and transformed into a medical and surgical building, with laboratories, consultation and treatment rooms. Over five thousand patients were treated in the past year, coming in many cases from several states and Canada. "Group Medicine", says Dr. Blain, "will not supplant the general practitioner, but in the future specialists will work in close harmony and the cases of difficult diagnosis will have the benefit of the several specialists at one time in the completion of diagnosis rather than to be referred to several isolated specialists. The expense incident to the latter method has made modern scientific treatment prohibitive, particularly to the middle class of people --- the backbone of our country. Under 'Group Medicine' the highest type of medical care is brought within reach not only of the very rich but to those in all walks of life."
From "The City of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Volume 5 (1922), by Clarence Monroe Burton.
BLAIN, Alexander W., surgeon; born, Detroit; son of Alexander William and Mary G. (Gray) Blain; M.D., Detroit College of Medicine, 1906; unmarried. Assistant to Dr. H. O. Walker, 1903-6; house physician, 1906-7, senior resident surgeon, 1907-8, member visiting staff, 1908-10, Harper Hospital; attending surgeon Harper Hospital Polyclinic, 1910-13; surgeon Detroit Shipbuilding Co. since 1912; lecturer on pathology, Detroit College of Medicine and Surgery. First lieutenant and surgeon Reserve Corps United States Army. Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science, American College of Surgeons; member American Medical Association, Wayne County Medical Society (chairman surgical section), Royal Society of Arts (England), Alumni Society Harper Hospital, Nu Sigma Nu. Mason (Michigan Sovereign Consistory, K. T., Shrine). Clubs: Detroit, Detroit Yacht, Royal Societies Club (London, Eng.). Author: Surgery of the Neck, 1913; also numerous articles on surgery in medical journals. Collaborating editor, International Journal of Surgery (New York), and Detroit Medical Journal. Recreation: natural history study. Office and Residence: 1105 Jefferson Avenue.
From "The Detroiters" book of 1909.
From the December 15, 1958, Detroit Free Press:
Dr. Blain Dies In His Hospital. He served terms as president and was consulting surgeon at of the Michigan Horticultural DR. BLAIN served on the Society and Detroit Science Society. At the time of his death, he was a director of the Detroit Zoological Society, and the Cranbrook Institute of Science. Among his medical aid science societies were those of Nu Sigma No, Alpha Omega Alpha and Sigma XI. His Masonic affiliations were editorial boards of several medical journals. He also was a past president of the Michigan Audubon Society which he founded in the state more than 50 years ago. Zion Lodge, No. 1, F&AM, A Detroit Commandery, K.T., and Moslem Temple Shrine. His clubs Included the Detroit Club, the Detroit Athletic Club, the Boat Club and the Noon Tide Club. " Dr. Blain married the former Ruby Johnson, with whom he made his home at 1028 Berkshire, Grosse Polnte Park. He found lasting pleasure in his country home and wild life preserve on Blain Island, in Lotus Lake, near W'aterford. There, he maintained the sanctuary for animal and bird life in all possible forms, a throwback to his boyhood ambition. Deer, buffalo, and bear are there, along with the snakes. Dr. Alexander Blain owls, raccoons and birds who deck his tree were the subjects of his X-ray pictures. ONE OF Dr. Blain's greatest efforts, a project which engaged the last days of his life, was the establishment on the third floor of the Old City Hall of a Detroit Natural History Museum. He had It well under way when he died. Beside his wife, Dr. Blain also is survived by two sons. Dr. Alexander W. Blain III, and Dr. Donald Gray Blain, a daughter, Mrs. Robert E. L. Berry, and a brother, Bethune Duffleld Blain. There are 10 grandchildren. Funeral services for Dr.Blain will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday In the chapel of the i William R. Hamilton Co., 3975 Cass at Alexandrine. Burial in will be at Elmwood Cemetery. Officiating at the service will be the Rev. Frank Fitt, now retired, of Ann Arbor, former minister of Grosse Pointe Memorial Church. Pallbearers will be active members of the Blain Hospital medical staff. The family suggests memorial tributes may be sent to the Wayne State University Medical Library Fund. 1510 Washington Blvd.
Alexander Blain Hospital
By Dan Austin of HistoricDetroit.org
"This hospital got its start when Dr. Alexander W. Blain, a prominent Detroit surgeon at Harper Hospital, opened a group medical clinic in 1911, "desiring to improve methods of diagnosis and treatment," Clarence M. Burton wrote in his "The City of Detroit, Michigan."
Dr. Blain was born March 4, 1885, in Detroit at the residence at Elmwood Cemetery, where his father was superintendent. The Eastern High School graduate founded the Michigan Audubon Society in 1904, two years before the Detroit native graduated from the Detroit College of Medicine. His career as a physician grew out of his ambition to be a naturalist. Though he was known for his skills operating on humans, he was said to always find time to mend a bird's injured wing.
"Dr. Blain maintained that specialists should not be isolated, but should work together so that the patient could have the benefit of specialists working in various lines," Burton continued.
In 1918, Blain moved his clinic into this building, originally a home built in 1892 for J.H. McMillan and designed by Mason & Rice. The structure, at East Jefferson Avenue and Dubois Street, was transformed into a medical and surgical building, with labs and consultation and treatment rooms. By 1922, Blain's clinic was seeing more than 5,000 patients a year, including some from others states and Canada.
The following year, the clinic's booming business would see it become a 50-bed general hospital, and renamed the Jefferson Clinic and Diagnostic Hospital.
On Oct. 10, 1936, Blain announced that he was renaming the hospital in the memory of his father, Alexander W. Blain Sr., who had died two years earlier at age 92.
At the time of the renaming, it was one of the oldest private clinics in the Midwest.
In 1942, it became a nonprofit, public-oriented institution.
Dr. Blain continued to serve as director and surgeon until 1953, serving thereafter as a consultant until he died Dec. 14, 1958. He died at age 73 at his own hospital. He was laid to rest at Elmwood, returning to where he was born.
When he died, the Detroit Free Press Editorial Board eulogized him, saying, "Dr. Blain was a healer and the health and welfare of his fellow humans were his first concern. His name ranks high among the great practitioners of this City and his loss will be felt by thousands of friends and admirers in all walks of civic life."
On Nov. 16, 1967, Mayor Jerome Cavanagh placed the cornerstone for a million-dollar, modern addition to the west side of the original building. This addition was designed by the firm Bennett & Straight. The contractor was Englehardt, Buettner and Holt.
But times were changing in the hospital industry, as the country was seeing a national trend away from independent hospitals and toward larger, multi-hospital corporations. Blain had been absorbed by the Detroit-Macomb Hospitals Corp.
As Detroit entered the 1980s, it also was deemed that there was an excess number of beds in southeast Michigan. Because extra hospitals and beds increase health-care costs, and because hospitals often tried to fill those beds with people who did not need to be hospitalized, the state sought to close and consolidate.
In 1981, the Comprehensive Health Planning Agency of Southeastern Michigan approved a bed-reduction plan that called for the getting rid of Blain and another of Detroit-Macomb Hospitals' locations, the Charles Godwin Jennings Hospital. Detroit-Macomb sued, and the CHPASM agreed out of court to support combining Jennings and Blain into one hospital, thus reducing the number of beds in the region.
In 1984, a proposed 315-bed Jennings-Blain Memorial Hospital was proposed for the corner of East Jefferson and Seyburn. It was to be finished in 1986 and replace the 117-bed Blain, the 300-bed Detroit Memorial Hospital on St. Antoine, and the 126-bed Jennings Hospital.
The old Blain building closed in 1987 and the original section of the building was then demolished.
Blain-Jennings was later merged into the St. John Health System.
In August 1997, the Detroit Free Press reported that the 1968 addition would be converted into a 66,000-square-foot office facility. That portion survives today and is home to the Detroit Police Department's Gaming Division."
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