In 1883, a hospital was a scary place, and conditions were especially bad for children. Cincinnati residents Mrs. Robert Dayton, Isabelle Hopkins and Mary Emery wanted to change that situation. They won support from their bishop to open a hospital for children as a project of the Episcopal diocese. The Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church (later to become the Children’s Hospital, and today Cincinnati Children’s) was incorporated in November 1883 and opened a few months later in a rented three-bedroom house in Walnut Hills. A few years later, Thomas and J. Josiah Emery purchased land in Mount Auburn and built a new hospital, which opened in November 1887.

In 1926, the hospital moved to a new, 200-bed facility near the College of Medicine, and established a formal affiliation as the Department of Pediatrics. The chairman of pediatrics, A. Graeme Mitchell, MD, envisioned a research mission, as well. He wrote to the hospital’s board: “Unless the hospital is interested in the prevention as well as the cure of disease … we have all of us failed to function to the fullest extent.” In response, board president William Cooper Procter donated $2.5 million to build and endow the Children’s Hospital Research Foundation, which opened in 1931.

During World War II, many hospital physicians and researchers were called to military service. Working at the Research Foundation, Samuel Rapoport developed a way to preserve whole blood, a breakthrough that helped save lives on the battlefield. His research colleague, Albert Sabin, served in the US Army Medical Corps and did important research on encephalitis, sandfly fever and dengue fever. At the war’s end, Sabin returned to Cincinnati Children’s to continue his pioneering research on polio.

After the war, Ashley Weech, MD, chairman of the Department of Pediatrics and director of the Children’s Hospital Research Foundation, began to rebuild the hospital staff. New pediatric subspecialty departments were established, and a new research and laboratory wing was added in 1950.

In the 1970s, pediatric care in Cincinnati was consolidated at the Children’s Hospital. Five previously independent organizations became affiliated with the hospital, and the hospital’s name was changed to Children’s Hospital Medical Center. The Convalescent and Services Pavilion (now Location E) was built to house the new programs. It opened in 1973.

Growth continued in the 1980s with opening of the Ambulatory Services Building (now Location C) in 1983. In 1987, Cincinnati Children’s opened the nation’s first freestanding pediatric surgery satellite center, in Mason, OH. Today Cincinnati Children’s has satellite locations across Greater Cincinnati. The newest, in Liberty Township, opened in 2008 and includes a 24-hour emergency department, 12 inpatient beds and eight operating rooms.

The hospital changed its name to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in 2002. The pace of growth dramatically increased in the new millennium with expansion of clinical and research programs, staff and facilities. Today Cincinnati Children’s is one of the largest, most comprehensive and respected pediatric hospitals and research centers in the United States. It also has become a national leader in quality improvement. 

More than 135 years after its founding, Cincinnati Children’s is the region’s first choice for pediatric care, while its services for children with rare and complex conditions attract patients from around the world.