Construction of the William J. Syms Operating Theatre was facilitated by the theatre’s namesake, a gun-dealing millionaire who, upon his death in 1889, bequeathed $350,000 to Roosevelt Hospital with the stipulation that the money be put toward the construction and operations of a surgical operating theatre with Dr. Charles McBurney as its director.
Dr. McBurney had presided over an operation on Syms some years earlier. Following the surgery, the surgeon received a check from Mr. Syms to the tune of $3,000 as payment for the $300 procedure. McBurney returned the money only to be repaid tenfold following the eventual death of his grateful patient.
