Thank you for visiting pasttensega.com. In order to be more consistent with my posts, I will be posting every Monday by 9 a.m. Eastern time going forward. Please visit my website each Monday for a new article. I have been writing about local history for over two years now for a total of 117 articles. This is in addition to writing for the Dunwoody Crier newspaper since 2006, available at appenmedia.com/dunwoody.
The story of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta-Scottish Rite begins in 1915. According to Franklin Garrett’s “Atlanta and Environs,” the Scottish Rite Masons were the founders of Scottish Rite Hospital in 1915. The initial name was Scottish Rite Convalescent Home for Crippled Children. They started the hospital to serve the needs of families who could not pay. Two cottages on East Lake Drive were the first home of the hospital.
A new facility was designed by renowned Atlanta architect Neil Reed in 1918/1919 and was built at 321 W. Hill Street. Today, the old hospital solarium is Scout Restaurant in the Oakhurst section of Decatur.
In 1966, the hospital began serving both families who could not pay and those who could.
I visited Scottish Rite in 1974 with a group of girls from Henderson High School for a community service project. At that time, the hospital was known as Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Children and was an orthopedic surgical hospital for children.
Two years after I visited Scottish Rite with my classmates, the hospital moved to their new and present home at the corner of Peachtree Dunwoody Road and Johnson Ferry Road. The 1976 hospital was built for $5 million dollars and held an all day open house on July 18, 1976. (Atlanta Constitution, July 2, 1976, “Doing her fair share”)
The name became Scottish Rite Children’s Medical Center and included the Wilbur and Hilda Glenn Hospital for Children. The Glenn family name can also be found on buildings at Grady Memorial Hospital, Crawford Long Hospital, and Glenn Memorial Chapel at Emory University.
Glenridge Drive is named after the family and their summer home, Glenridge Hall, which at the corner of Abernathy Road and Glenridge Drive until it was demolished in 2015 and the Mercedes-Benz North American Headquarters was built in its place. The demolition of Glenridge Hall was a devastating loss to history lovers and preservationists.
In 1998, Egleston Children’s Hospital and Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital merged to become Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Hughes Spalding Children’s Hospital was added to the CHOA group in 2006.