Children's Medical Center history

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta has grown and evolved since its founding in 1915, but its mission remains the same: to make kids better today and healthier tomorrow.

In 1916, prominent insurance agent Thomas R. Egleston Jr. died, leaving $100,000 in his will to buy land and construct a children’s hospital.

In 1919, the Calvin W. Hunnicutt house on Spring Street Northwest, opposite what is today Baltimore Place, was purchased for the hospital.

The camp later acquired a cottage on Oak Lawn Avenue.September 1921: A free clinic was opened in the basement of the First Presbyterian Church at Harwood and Wood Streets.

Joe Harrell), who later wrote an account of her stay and of being visited by Doctor George Truett (4). Facilities were expanded by the 5-story Children's Building in 1922 (Figure ​(Figure44), which greatly increased the capacities of pediatrics, gynecology, and obstetrics.

However, the property was sold in 1923 because increasing traffic had made the location too loud for recuperating patients needing rest.

Spring 1924: The Presbyterian Clinic opened in a new building at Maple and Welborn Streets.

Finally, in 1926, another property was purchased: a 15-acre patch of land located on what was then Forrest Road and Fortune Street, now the intersection of Ralph McGill Boulevard and Wabash Avenue.

In 1928, Harold Younger established a dental clinic at Freeman that was funded by the Dallas Kiwanis Club for more than 20 years.

January 1930: The Bradford Memorial Hospital for Babies incorporated the baby camps and opened at the corner of Maple and Oak Lawn Avenues.

The dental clinic at Freeman earned national recognition for its pediatric dental internship program, started in 1935 by Drs.

July 1937: Doctor Floyd Norman was named the first full-time resident of the Freeman Clinic.

July 1938: Doctor Stephen Halcuit Moore became the second paid resident at Freeman Clinic.

July 1939: Ground was broken for the Texas Children's Hospital adjacent to the Freeman Clinic.

The first patient was admitted on September 13, 1940.

In 1941, Doctor J. Warner Duckett performed the first corrective heart surgery on an infant at Children’s.

In 1944, Bradford, Freeman and Texas Children’s (renamed Children’s Hospital of Texas) aligned their patient and financial reporting systems.

Spalding’s desire to help was initially sparked in 1946 when Margaret Mitchell, famed author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Gone With the Wind,” wrote to him to express her concern about the healthcare system available to African Americans in Atlanta.

In May 1947, the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority, led by Hughes Spalding, authorized construction to begin on the hospital.

December 1951: The Ivor O'Connor Morgan Hospital for Tuberculous Children opened adjacent to the Children's Hospital.

When it finally opened in 1952, the Hughes Spalding Pavilion held more than 130 beds and provided medical care for African American adults and children.

October 1954: Doctor Edward L. Pratt, who had succeeded Doctor Gladys Fashena as professor of pediatrics at Southwestern Medical School, became chief of staff of the hospitals.

1956 – Egleston becomes the pediatric teaching affiliate of Emory University School of Medicine.

In 1958, maternity services were moved back to the Veal Teaching and Research Hospital—the old Texas Baptist Memorial Sanitarium renamed for Minnie S. Veal, the daughter of Col.

Doctor John D. Nelson had started a pediatric infectious disease program in 1959 at the Bradford Hospital, one of only four in the nation at the time.

In 1961, a decision was made that Children’s would move to land adjacent to UT Southwestern Medical School and serve as its pediatric teaching hospital.

By January of 1962, contributions exceeded $2.7 million.

Kids First, Kids Now! played a key role in the national advocacy effort that resulted in the passage of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, the most important advance in child health care access since the inception of Medicaid in 1965.

On July 30, 1967, the new Children’s Medical Center was formally dedicated.

The nation’s first pediatric day surgery program began at Children’s in 1968.

The hospital’s new expansion and updated name, Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital, launched in July 1976 at its current location in north Atlanta.

In 1979, Children’s started the Low Birth Weight Clinic to provide comprehensive care for very small infants and those born with chronic conditions.

Children’s celebrated the fifth anniversary of its first kidney transplant in 1980 with a reunion for transplant patients.

In 1983, Hughes Spalding Pavilion expanded its facilities.

In 1984, 2-year-old Melissa Lively became the first child in Texas to receive a transplanted liver.

In 1987, Children’s and UT Southwestern launched the pediatric General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) to encourage research into treatments and cures for childhood diseases.

Children's celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1988 with the launch of a $15 million Diamond Jubilee Capital Campaign.

15, 1989, the hospital was renamed again as the Wilbur and Hilda Glenn Hospital for Children, in honor of the couple who originally donated the land in north Atlanta, while the holding company became the Scottish Rite Children’s Medical Center.

In 1991, the Charles E. and Sarah M. Seay Emergency Referral Center opened at Children’s.

The facility reopens in 1992 as Hughes Spalding Children’s Hospital.

During the tenure and through the efforts of Doctor Robert Kramer, a new dimension in Baylor's care for children began in December 1993 after a 3-year period of planning and fundraising.

In 1994, Children's Health Fund launched Kids First, Kids Now!, an awareness and advocacy campaign that focused national attention on the need for a true healthcare safety net for all of America’s children.

July 1996: The Columbia Children's Hospital at Medical City Dallas was founded (5).

In 1998, Children’s becomes one of the first pediatric hospitals in the nation to implement the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) in radiology.

One of the most memorable was in 2003, when doctors at Children’s separated conjoined Egyptian twins.

The medical center’s position as a leading pediatric research hospital was strengthened in 2004, when a $5 million endowment provided by the Caruth Foundation established the W.W. Caruth Jr.

In 2006, Children’s assumed responsibility for the management of services at Hughes Spalding Children’s Hospital, adding a third hospital to anchor our growing System.

Children’s Medical Center Plano, which includes inpatient beds, outpatient services, an ICU, an emergency room and surgical services, opened in 2008.

In 2010, a new building for the hospital opened at the same location, providing expanded facilities, updated equipment, a primary care center, a sickle cell clinic and an asthma clinic.

In 2012, the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern opened with the vision of building a premier biomedical research program focused on transformational discoveries leading to new treatments and therapies.