The story
First location 1855–1866
In 1855, Philadelphia had a population of about 460,000, and recorded 10,507 deaths. Leading causes of death were smallpox, typhoid, and scarlet fever. In the worst month of 1855, 300 children under 12 years old died, primarily of infectious diseases. A Philadelphia physician, Dr. Francis West Lewis, inspired by a visit to the new Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London (founded 1852), enlisted Drs. T. Hewson Bache and R. A. F. Penrose Sr. to found the first children's hospital in North America.
On November 23, 1855, the following small advertisement appeared in the Philadelphia Public Ledger:
The Children's Hospital—located on Blight Street, running from Pine to Lombard, below Broad, is now open for the reception of Patients. Children suffering from Acute Diseases and Accidents will be received free of charge. A dispensary, for sick children, is also attached to the Hospital and will be open at the same place every day, (Sundays excepted from 11 to 12 o'clock, when advice and medicine will be given free of charge.)
The first location of the original Children's Hospital was a small building on Blight Street (now Watts St). The hospital consisted of 12 beds and a dispensary. That year they recorded 67 inpatient admissions and 306 outpatient visits.
Second location 1866–1916
Children's Hospital was relocated to 22nd Street between Locust and Walnut Sts after the American Civil War. This hospital consisted of 35 beds and a dispensary. The second hospital was the site of the first surgery at CHOP, which was first performed in 1870. In addition, the first resident physician at CHOP was appointed in 1873, and formal medical teaching in medical and surgical clinics began in 1877.
Early on in CHOP's history, a long-term care ("convalescent") facility was opened as a county branch near Overbrook. In 1899, the County Branch convalescent facility was closed, and the program and patients were transferred to the Seashore House near Atlantic City, New Jersey. CHOP later underwent an expansion, and capacity was increased to 94 beds by 1892.
A nursing school, the Ingersoll Training School, was opened in 1894.
In 1900, the Catherwood Milk Laboratory was established.
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In 1914, the first department for the Prevention of Disease in the nation was established.
Third location 1916–1974
Construction adjacent to the second hospital began in 1913, and the first unit was opened in 1916, extending toward 18th and Bainbridge Streets.
In 1919, the hospital became affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The affiliation became steadily closer over the next 17 years, with the Children's Hospital becoming identical to the pediatric department of the school of medicine, with most of the attending physicians appointed jointly to both institutions.
In 1925, the hospital became affiliated with the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic.
The whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine was first developed.
The first formal allocation of funds to research was recorded in 1937.
The first closed incubator for newborns was used.
The nursing school was disbanded in 1945 and converted into an affiliate training center.
A six-story research building next to the hospital was dedicated in 1954.
In 1962, under Dr. C. Everett Koop (later to be Surgeon General), the first neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in the nation was opened, along with a new neonatal surgical unit.
In 1965, the first home care program for children was established.
A Clinical Research Center under the auspices of the National Institutes of Health was opened in 1965.
In 1967, after years of lobbying hospital physicians and anesthesiologists, Dr. John Downes finally opened up a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at CHOP, the first of its kind in the United States. Downes was inspired by pediatric and adult intensive care units in Europe and wanted to open a state-of-the-art unit in Philadelphia to care for the sickest of children. Before the creation of a PICU at CHOP, children who required advanced care were often cared for on the surgery wards and recovery rooms. Most of these children were cared for by anesthesiologists in the recovery room.
Fourth location 1974–2022
Construction of the new hospital at a new site on the west side of the Schuylkill River at 34th Street and Civic Center Boulevard, adjacent to the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, began in 1969, and the first building was opened in 1974. This present Children's Hospital complex occupies part of the site of the old Philadelphia General Hospital and Blockley Almshouse.
A helicopter transport system for critically ill and injured children was inaugurated in 1973.
Milestones and advances in pediatric care pioneered at CHOP include the first formal medical training in pediatrics, techniques for the correction of congenital heart malformations, incubators for newborn intensive care, home ventilator care, and vaccine development.
In October 2006, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's trauma center was one of the receiving hospitals' for victims of the West Nickel Mines School shooting, treating a few of the pediatric victims from the shooting who were medevaced to the hospital.
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is in Philadelphia's University City neighborhood, and since 2001 has been undergoing a $1.5 billion expansion that has doubled the hospital's size, while also building more than one million sq ft (93,000 m2) of new research and outpatient facilities on a large, eight-acre (3.2 ha) site south of the main hospital on Civic Center Boulevard. The South Campus expansion includes the eleven-story Colket Translational Research Building, which provides lab space for the Center for Childhood Cancer Research and the Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics. The new South Campus also includes an underground parking garage and an ambulatory care building with outpatient services.
This South Campus expansion adjoins the University of Pennsylvania Health System's construction of the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine and Roberts Proton Therapy Center.
On July 1, 2015, Madeline Bell, previously CHOP's president and chief operating officer, became president and chief executive officer. She succeeded Steven M. Altschuler, MD, who retired after 15 years as CEO. The board of trustees of Children's Hospital made the announcement on May 14.
In May 2020 amidst the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic CHOP started offering virtual pediatric urgent care visits to all children aged 0–21 throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Delaware regardless of if the child was a patient at the hospital or not.
Area expansion since 2022
In January 2022, CHOP opened a new inpatient hospital on its King of Prussia campus, followed by a new Center for Advanced Behavioral Healthcare in West Philadelphia in October 2022 and a Behavioral Health and Crisis Center in spring 2024. The hospital also opened new satellite locations in New Brunswick and Cape May, among others.
As of 2025, CHOP plans to build a new 24-story tower next to its main hospital by 2028. The tower is planned to have 1.3 million square feet and 700 private patient rooms. The building is financed with the help of a $125 million gift from Brian L. Roberts. CHOP also plans a renovation of its main hospital with help from the same gift.
From Wikipedia’s article on Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4