To care for these sick, injured or destitute immigrants, Pittsburgh began building hospitals. The first to be built were religiously affiliated, but soon, city stewards agreed that Pittsburgh would also need a publicly charted hospital that could provide health care for all, without sectarian restrictions. In 1847, Henry D. Sellers, M.D., proposed a new hospital in Pittsburgh's 12th ward, on a hillside overlooking the city's Strip District and adjacent to what is now Polish Hill (today, that plot is home to a ballfield and West Penn Park, named in honor of the hospital). On March 18, 1848, the hospital was formally incorporated, and the four-story, 120-patient hospital finally opened in spring 1853, after five years of design and construction.