A rather odd choice of postcard to send to a young boy for his birthday, but it gives an interesting view of a children's ward in the 1940s or 50s. How things have changed! The card was sent in 1951 from The Hague in the Netherlands to Haarlem.
Could the Irene Pavilion have been a tuberculosis sanatorium? It does look like one. I found another picture of the same place, with the children wearing the same hats, in the Hague Municipal Image Library. Unfortunately it doesn't give any further information about the hospital in those days.
The Juliana Children's Hospital in The Hague, is 125 years old. When it first opened in 1885, it had only six beds and a cot. That first year they treated 52 children. The building soon became far too small and a new hospital was built on Dr. Van Welylaan. In 1999 it moved to its current location on Sportlaan, part of a large and modern complex very different from the picture on the postcard. The only similarity is that it continues to look after children from birth to 16 years old.
A post for Sepia Saturday.
