Our Legacy
Our 135+ year legacy continues today. Women’s College Hospital is pioneering new healthcare solutions for women and their families, while identifying and addressing women’s health gaps.
You can see our fascinating history at The Miss Margaret Robins Archives, which are open to the public and free to access. You can arrange to view the Archives or schedule a tour by contacting:
Heather Gardiner
WCH Archivist
416-323-6400 x 4076
heather.gardiner@wchospital.ca
1883
Outraged that women were shut out of medicine, Dr. Emily Stowe, Canada’s first woman doctor, founded Woman’s Medical College, run by and for women.
1911
The first hospital, located at 18 Seaton Street, opened with seven inpatient beds.
1915
Women’s College Hospital and Dispensary was officially opened at 125 Rusholme Road.
1948
Ontario’s first cancer detection clinic for “well women” was opened; WCH pioneered the practice of screening healthy women for early signs of cancer.
1961
Women’s College Hospital becomes a fully accredited teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Toronto.
1963
WCH became the first hospital in Ontario to use mammography as a diagnostic tool to detect breast cancer.
1971
WCH opened its Perinatal Intensive Care Unit, the first in Canada. Also opened, was the Family Practice Health Centre. It was the largest in Toronto at the time, and remains one of the largest today.
1973
WCH opened The Bay Centre for Birth Control. Dr. Marion Powell (known as the “Mother of Birth Control in Canada”) became its director in 1981.
1996
WCH opened its cardiac prevention and rehabilitation program designed exclusively for women, the first in Canada.
2006
WCH began operating independently under the Public Hospitals Act.
2007
WCH began planning for its new home with a $555 million capital redevelopment project. In 2013, the first phase of the new hospital opened.
2013
WCH opened the Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care (WIHV) and became the provincial incubator for bold new ideas to transform the healthcare system.
2015
The new home of Women’s College Hospital is complete.
