Mission:

Our mission is to provide personal, quality health care with respect and compassion to our diverse community.

History:

Founded in 1971 as well-baby clinic, Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center (SJPHC) originally operated from one room in the Curtis Hall community building.                                          

It has been 10 years since SJPHC moved to this beautiful building in December 1998. Since then we have more than doubled in the size of our patient population, from 4,000 to more than 10,000.

Many patients remember the old health center in the storefront across Centre Street, where the Eastern Bank is now located. But few patients or staff know how SJPHC got started, so I will share a little of the history.

In the early 1970's, Brookside and Martha Elliot Health Centers already existed in Jamaica Plain. A group of mothers in the South Street area felt that these were too far away to serve their needs, and organized to get a center in the southern part of JP. Out of that effort came a two-room operation located in Curtis Hall, with Nurse Practitioner Barbara Hohman and a small staff providing services for children. Within a couple of years, our first MD was added, pediatrician Martin Leber, MD; the affiliation with Children's Hospital was changed to a long-term affiliation with Brigham and Women's; we moved to our Centre Street storefront in 1974; we hired an Adult Medicine physician and were soon able to add a second, Dr. Michael Lambert (our longtime Medical Director). Eventually SJPHC was able to obtain the storefront next door for Adult Medicine.