Pacific Dispensary for Women and Children

Pacific Dispensary for Women and Children (later, Children's Hospital; later, The Hospital for Children and Training School for Nurses) was a women's and children's hospital in San Francisco, California, US, founded in 1875, renamed Children's Hospital in 1877. Children's Hospital merged with Presbyterian Hospital in 1991, and within two years, a large joint physician group was established. It was subsequently acquired by California Pacific Medical Center.

The organization was established as the "Pacific Dispensary for Women and Children" in 1875 at 520 Taylor Street, San Francisco, by a group of philanthropic women including Mrs. D. J. Staples, president; Mrs. A. L. Stone and Elkan Cohen, vice-presidents; Mrs. Oliver W. Easton, treasurer; and Mrs. John Hooper, Mrs. C. A. Wright, Mrs. Irving M. Scott, Mrs. Joseph Healy, Mrs. E. W. Phillips, Mrs. W. T. Wallace, Mrs. Henry Graves, Mrs. Thomas Flint, directors. The hospital was reincorporated in 1885 as "The Hospital for Children and Training School for Nurses," and was located at 3700 California Street. The staff of those early days contained the names of Mrs. M. E. Bucknell, M. D., Mrs. Charlotte Blake Brown, M. D., and Mrs. Sara E. Brown, M. D. From this small beginning, in 1875, the hospital grew to become a general hospital. It was one of the largest hospitals devoted entirely to women and children patients, with a governing board of women, and an administration and staff largely of women. The school of nursing was the pioneer organization of this class in California.

The foundation of the Children's Hospital was made by women physicians. Dr. Martha Bucknall and Dr. Charlotte Blake Brown in 1875 called on 70 women in San Francisco to secure a board of directors of eight women. Women's boards were then a new idea. No YWCA existed, no Associated Charities, no Fruit and Flower Mission. Social service was confined to the boards managing orphanages. This first organization was incorporated as the Pacific Dispensary for Women and Children, and was one of a chain of hospitals run by and for women physicians across the United States.

The purposes of the institution were defined as: "To provide for women the medical aid of competent women physicians and to assist in educating women for nurses and in the practice of medicine and kindred professions." Two examples of the financial straits of the institution during the first ten years of its existence are described here. Dr. Ellen Sargent, who was graduating from the University Medical School and had become interested in the Hospital as a medical student, gave up her commencement black silk dress and deposited the money with the Hospital to pay the rent to keep it open for another month. At another time of crisis, Dr. Lucy Maria Field Wanzer and Dr. Brown took out their life memberships to avert the same catastrophe. Jessie Astredo Smith was the first graduate. The second class graduated four nurses. In 1889, the attending physicians were Miss Wanzer, Charlotte Blake Browne, and Kate Post-Van Order.

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