Until it closed in 2004 and the building was razed to make way for a new luxury high use, Doctors Hospital stood on East End Avenue two blocks from our apartment. Opened in 1929 as a small, private hospital, originally for maternity cases, it was soon favored by celebrities and over the years counted Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson, and Eugene O’Neill among its patients, while also serving our upper eastside neighborhood. One weekend some years ago I was serving my family lunch...