At the time, most affluent New Yorkers in poor health received treatment and surgery at home. The indigent. Concurrently, in , he gathered a group of respected physicians at his stately city home at 1 East 17th Street and established the New York Society for the Relief of Widows and Orphans of Medical Men. In , this same forum ultimately gave rise to the Academy of Medicine, which named Delafield its first president.