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On Christmas Day, 1888, Wesley Hospital admitted its first patient in temporary quarters provided by the Chicago Training School for City, Home and Foreign Missions at Dearborn and Ohio streets. Hospital founder Isaac Newton Danforth, M.D. and Lucy Rider Meyer, a Methodist social reformer and director of the Chicago Training School, garnered support for the hospital among local clergy and business leaders and helped chart its early growth. The hospital moved to a rented house at 355 East Ohio St. the following spring, and by year's end the medical staff was organized, a Ladies Aid Association formed and a training school for nurses established.
Early hospital trustees included such civic and business leaders as William Deering, Arthur Dixon, Norman Harris, and Gustavus Swift. In 1890 Wesley Hospital affiliated with Northwestern University and agreed to relocate to 25th and South Dearborn St., on land set aside for the medical school campus. A 35-bed facility served until 1901, when Wesley's six-story, steel-and-brick structure was completed. By 1910, Wesley had expanded to 225 beds, making it among the city's largest and most modern hospital facilities. In 1914, trustee James Deering made a $1 million gift to Wesley Hospital establishing an endowment fund for indigent care; in honor of the Deering family's generous support, the institution was renamed Wesley Memorial Hospital.
During World War I, many Wesley doctors and nurses served overseas with Northwestern University Base Hospital #12.
Wesley Memorial Hospital struggled during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Many Wesley physicians left to join Passavant Memorial Hospital, which had affiliated with Northwestern and opened a new facility on the medical school's downtown campus. A welcome windfall came in 1936 with the announcement of trustee George Herbert Jones' $1 million gift to fund construction of a new hospital adjacent to the medical school. Additional funding from Jones and daughter Ruth Jones Allison made possible a truly magnificent facility. With its stately Gothic lobby and modern patient care facilities, Wesley Memorial became known as Chicago's "Cathedral of Healing." Opened one day before the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the new hospital was able to meet wartime demands while caring for an increased patient population. Several floors were set aside for military personnel from nearby Navy Pier, draftees reported for induction physicals, and students enrolled in the United States Cadet Nurse Corps trained at Wesley.
Wesley's reputation for patient care, research and education was well-earned. Its medical staff pioneered treatment in physical therapy, cardiology, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery and radiation therapy. In addition to serving as a training facility for doctors and nurses, Wesley conducted training programs for a variety of allied health professionals. In 1948, the Chicago Maternity Center affiliated with Wesley, increasing their ability to provide prenatal and obstetrical care to needy women throughout Chicago. In 1954, a merger with Chicago Memorial Hospital added additional medical staff and services. The Ruth Jones Allison Pavilion, completed in 1959, increased bed capacity to 700 and expanded outpatient and research facilities.
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