The Hospital for Sick Children, known as SickKids, opened in Toronto in 1875 as a small charity hospital run by a committee of women led by Elizabeth McMaster. It began in a rented 11-room house at 31 Avenue Street with six iron cots and admitted children regardless of ability to pay. Over the next century and a half it moved to a purpose-built home on College Street, later to University Avenue, and grew into a research centre as well as a hospital. This page covers that history only. It gives no medical or visiting information.
A hospital proposed in the newspaper, 1874
SickKids dates its origins to December 21, 1874, when The Globe printed an article announcing grassroots plans for a children’s hospital in Toronto. Before that, no hospital in Canada was reserved for children. The hospital’s own history page names the Hospital for Sick Children in London, England (now Great Ormond Street Hospital) as the model. Heritage Toronto gives a different inspiration: a visit by Elizabeth McMaster to Manchester, England, in the 1860s, where she saw the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. Neither source says that the other is wrong, and the two accounts may both be true.
Avenue Street, 1875
The Ladies Committee, initially led by McMaster, rented a two-storey house at 31 Avenue Street. The site lies within the area now occupied by the MaRS Discovery District. Before the opening the committee bought six iron cots, two stoves, and other equipment. A small dedication ceremony took place on March 23, 1875, according to SickKids. Wikipedia gives March 1 for the opening, so the exact day depends on the source.
SickKids treats April 3 as its birthday, because on that date a three-year-old girl named Maggie, who had been scalded after falling into a tub of hot water, arrived as the first patient. The hospital page itself notes that the historical records are thin. During the first 16 months, 111 patients were seen and 44 were admitted as inpatients. Volunteer members of the committee gave the daily care, and about a dozen local doctors each gave a few hours a week.
John Ross Robertson and the College Street building
The hospital’s fortunes changed with the arrival of the newspaper publisher John Ross Robertson (born December 28, 1841, died May 31, 1918), founder of the Toronto Telegram. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography records that he became a trustee in 1885 and chairman of the board in 1891. His only daughter had died of scarlet fever in 1882, and from 1883 until his death he gave about $500,000 (CAD) to the hospital. He appealed publicly for donations in the Telegram, and his will created an endowment fund based on the newspaper’s profits. The biography says he visited the hospital every day and calls him its “Santa Claus”. His own career is described on the page about John Ross Robertson.
The Dictionary credits him with overseeing three building projects: a new College Street building in 1889, a five-storey nurses’ residence and college in 1905, and a milk pasteurization plant in 1909. In 1883 he also oversaw the founding of the Lakeside Home for Little Children, a convalescent retreat on Toronto Island. Heritage Toronto’s photographs date the hospital’s time at College and Elizabeth Streets as 1891 to 1951, so the Dictionary’s 1889 and the 1891 start date refer to different stages, construction and occupancy. Other institutional buildings of the period appear on the site’s historic buildings pages.
Timeline of the hospital
| Year | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1874 | Newspaper article announces plans for a children’s hospital | SickKids |
| 1875 | House at 31 Avenue Street opens with six cots | SickKids |
| 1877 | Hospital opens to inpatients and outpatients | Heritage Toronto |
| 1883 | Lakeside Home founded on Toronto Island | Dictionary of Canadian Biography |
| 1891 to 1951 | Hospital at College and Elizabeth Streets | Heritage Toronto |
| 1919 | Organized research begins under Dr. Alan Brown | SickKids |
| 1937 | Polio outbreak; staff build 27 iron lungs | Heritage Toronto |
| 1942 to 1952 | Nutritional experiments on Indigenous children, later acknowledged | SickKids |
Research and Pablum
SickKids says organized research began in 1919 under Dr. Alan Brown, and that in 1920 Angelia Courtney became the first director of the hospital’s new chemical research laboratories, also called the Nutritional Research Laboratories. The Canadian Encyclopedia dates the nutrition laboratories to 1918, so the founding year is disputed by a year or two. A milk pasteurization plant is dated 1908 by SickKids, which calls it the first in Canada, and 1909 by the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
In the early 1930s Brown, Theodore Drake, and Frederick Tisdall developed Pablum, a fortified infant cereal, building on the earlier Sun Wheat Biscuit created during the Depression. SickKids states that revenue from it helped fund research. The Canadian Encyclopedia gives 1930 for the first development, while a University of Toronto archive record for Drake gives 1934, so the date is shown here only as the early 1930s.
Polio in 1937
One of the city’s deadliest polio outbreaks began in 1937. Because iron lungs were scarce, hospital staff built 27 of them in a few weeks, according to Heritage Toronto. The same source says medical research brought polio under control by the mid-1950s, after Jonas Salk announced his vaccine in 1955.
A harmful chapter acknowledged
SickKids publishes an acknowledgment about the years 1942 to 1952. In that period Tisdall and his team, working for the federal Department of Indian Affairs, carried out nutritional experiments on malnourished children in some Indigenous communities and residential schools. In the hospital’s words, the experiments were conducted without the consent of the children or their parents, and the page says they would not meet modern research ethics standards. The hospital acknowledges “harmful aspects” of its history with Indigenous people. The hospital’s own statement is the best starting point for readers studying this period.
Moving to University Avenue
After 1951 the hospital left College Street for its present campus on University Avenue, a move described in the Wikipedia article on the hospital and attributed there to an archived SickKids history page. This detail was not confirmed in a primary source read for this page. The campus has been enlarged repeatedly since, and the Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning on Bay Street is a more recent addition. Current building plans change often and are best checked on the hospital’s own site.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded the Hospital for Sick Children?
A Ladies Committee initially led by Elizabeth McMaster founded it in 1875. Its first home was a rented house at 31 Avenue Street.
Why is April 3 the hospital’s birthday?
SickKids marks April 3 as the day the first patient, a three-year-old girl named Maggie, was admitted. The dedication ceremony came earlier, on March 23, 1875.
What was John Ross Robertson’s role?
He was a trustee from 1885 and chairman of the board from 1891, a major donor, and the creator of a Telegram-based endowment in his will, according to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
Where was the hospital before University Avenue?
From 1891 to 1951 it stood at College and Elizabeth Streets, in a building that replaced rented premises.
Related reading
- John Ross Robertson, publisher and hospital chairman
- Historic buildings of Toronto, page one
- The Toronto Telegram, Robertson’s newspaper
- Toronto Islands, site of the Lakeside Home
- Toronto culture, sports and language
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- SickKids, “Beginnings” and “Nutrition history”
- Dictionary of Canadian Biography, “Robertson, John Ross”
- Heritage Toronto, “Sick Kids hospital history”
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Pablum” and “Theodore Drake” (read as search summaries)
- Wikipedia, “The Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto)” (secondary)
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 23). The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids): History Since 1875. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/sickkids-hospital-history
MLA: “The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids): History Since 1875.” History of Toronto, 23 Oct. 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/sickkids-hospital-history. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids): History Since 1875.” Last modified October 23, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/sickkids-hospital-history.
The pages have no named author, so the site is given as the author. Add the date you read the page if your style asks for it.