Children's Hospital Colorado History

With that goal to guide them, this same group of intrepid volunteers officially incorporated as The Children's Hospital on May 9, 1908.

In 1909, Children's Colorado converted a former residence at 2221 Downing Street into a well equipped institution with a capacity of 30 beds, admitting its first patients on Feb.

17, 1910, treating 290 patients in its first year.

The hospital's first class of nursing students graduated in 1912.

As the demand for child healthcare services increased throughout the region, the hospital quickly outgrew its original location and raised more than 200,000 to build a new and improved facility, which opened in 1917 at 19th Avenue and Downing Street in downtown Denver.

Doctor George B. Packard Jr. performed the first pyloromyotomy a type of stomach surgery in Denver in the 1920s.

When Harry Tammen died in 1924, he bequeathed half of his estate 2 million to the hospital.

The hospital hired its first physical therapist in 1932.

A Hydro-Physio-Therapy unit opened in 1936 and was acknowledged as the finest of its kind in the United States.

Agnes Reid Tammen donated the hospital's first iron lung machine in 1937, providing treatment for children with trouble breathing.

The hospital logged its first medical record in 1939.

The Junior League opened the hospital's first snack and gift shop in 1950.

Children's Colorado has long been on the forefront of medical research, establishing a Research Foundation in 1953.

The Oca Cushman Wing named after the hospital's first superintendent opened in 1958, adding 72,000 square-feet of modern medical facilities including operating and recovery rooms.

Children's Colorado sponsored Colorado's first amputee ski school at Arapahoe Basin in 1968.

The first Burn Program in Colorado began treating pediatric patients in 1974.

1985 Doctor Frank Chang with patients.

After numerous expansions over the years at the hospital's downtown Denver location, Children's Hospital Colorado opened its new campus in Aurora on September 29, 2007.

On June 21, 2011, the hospital announced that its name was changing from The Children's Hospital to Children's Hospital Colorado.