Shriners Hospitals for Children history

In 1925 the Shriners added facilities in Salt Lake City; Springfield, Massachusetts; and Mexico City.

A pair of hospitals opened in 1926, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Lexington, Kentucky.

Finally, in 1927 the Shriners opened a children's hospital in Greenville, South Carolina.

The Shriners building program came to an end as the nation lapsed into the Great Depression of the 1930s. As a result, in 1937 two nonprofit corporations were created to provide financial separation between the fraternal organization and the hospital network.

In 1945 the organization opened a hospital in Mexico City.

Aside from treatment, Shriners Hospitals committed funds for burn research and teaching. It reported back in 1962 that the burn care field for children, both in terms of treatment and research, was severely limited in North America.

1963: The first burn care unit opens.

A few months later, in February 1964, a similar unit was established in the Cincinnati General Hospital, followed two months later by a five-bed ward in the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Other units were opened in the San Francisco and Chicago Shriners hospitals in 1984.

In 1985 Shriners Hospitals opened a pediatric hospital in Tampa, Florida, the first new Shriners hospital to be built in nearly 20 years.

In 1986 it became one of the first healthcare organizations in the country to provide an electronic press kit to television news departments.

2002: A restructuring plan is announced.

In 2007, the organization initiated a system-wide branding effort to create consistency in the look and feel of materials throughout the Shriners Hospitals for Children healthcare system.