Seton Medical Center

Seton Medical Center
Verity Health System
Shown in California
Geography
Location	1900 Sullivan Ave., Daly City, California, United States
Coordinates	37°40′48″N 122°28′29″W / 37.6799°N 122.4746°W / 37.6799; -122.4746Coordinates: 37°40′48″N 122°28′29″W / 37.6799°N 122.4746°W / 37.6799; -122.4746
Organization
Patron	Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
Services
Beds	357
History
Founded	1893
Links
Website	www.setonmedicalcenter.org
Lists	Hospitals in California

Seton Medical Center (originally Mary's Help Hospital) is a 357-bed Verity Health System hospital. It was founded in San Francisco. The current complex is located in Daly City, California, United States. It is the largest employer in Daly City.

In 1889 Kate Johnson, a wealthy San Francisco widow made donations to acquire land and build a "sunshine hospital" for women and children under the condition it be operated by the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul. It was built in San Francisco on Guerrero Street. Johnson was impressed with their work with "orphans, beggars, prisoners, the sick, refugees, and the mentally ill" during her European travels. The medical center was founded as Mary's Help Hospital in 1893 by the Daughters of Charity of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul and a new building, located at 145 Guerrero Street at Brosnan Street (west of the Levi Strauss factory), by April 1906, was almost completed but destroyed shortly thereafter by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. In 1912 Mary’s Help Hospital officially opened as did its nursing school program. In 1913 this made it the largest private hospital in Northern California. The medical center offered free and partial payment services in addition to free food.

By the 1950s the hospital was becoming overwhelmed with over 30,000 patients annually, and an earthquake in 1957 that damaged the building led to a decision to build a new hospital. In 1965 a new hospital was built in Daly City as San Francisco was found to have a surplus while northern San Mateo County was in need of a medical center and emergency room services. The site was a hillside near Interstate 280 that was until that point a heather and field crops farm. It was designed like all previous incarnations to be a "sunshine hospital" meaning that every room had a windowed view into the exterior world where natural sunlight could make it to them.