The Crescent Street Chronicles

A documentary on Dr. Louis (“Doc”) Loffredo and the Crescent Street Hospital is filming this summer. The film is being directed by Liam Coleman, Doc’s great grandson assisted by Peter Loffredo, Doc’s youngest son. They are looking for former patients and their extended families that may have a memory or a story to share about “Doc” or the hospital. 

Dr. Louis Loffredo founded the Crescent Street Hospital at 77 – 83 Crescent Street in Middletown, CT on July 22, 1937. They transformed this Civil War row house into a facility that provided surgical, medical, x-ray and maternity services. The hospital grew from its initial seventeen-bed capacity to forty at the time of his death on March 25, 1964.  

Dr. Loffredo was a general practitioner who specialized in surgery, obstetrics, and anesthesiology. He was born in Nocera Inferiore, Italy on September 8, 1894. His family arrived in America in May of 1898 and settled in East Hampton, CT. He graduated from Middletown High School in 1914 and received his B.A. (1918) and M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania (1922.) He completed his surgical internship at Philadelphia General and St. Christopher’s Hospitals. In 1924 he began his private practice in the North End of Middletown and joined the staff of the Middlesex Memorial Hospital, where he served as Chief of Surgery from 1929 to 1937.

Dr. Loffredo and his wife, Eva Anderson, a former nurse at the Middlesex Hospital, had seven children. Together they owned and operated the Crescent Street Hospital for over twenty-five years. He was a founding member of the Middletown Board of Health on which he served for more than twenty-five years and was police surgeon. He also served on the Middletown Board of Education, the advisory board of the Vocational Agricultural School at Middletown High School, and on the Redevelopment Commission. 

“Doc,” as his many patients and friends affectionately called him, had a reputation as a skilled and compassionate surgeon throughout the state. His former patients and their families fondly recall his visits to their homes to attend to a loved one. Dr. Loffredo left a legacy of dedication to his patients and his community.  That dedication was the hallmark of his life as a physician, surgeon, and humanitarian.

If you have information or a story to share, please contact Peter Loffredo at ptloffredo@att.net or (860) 346- 8258 or Liam Coleman at liamjcoleman3@gmail.com or (860) 331-1297