Haverford Heritage Trail Site N2: Babies’ Hospital (site)

Directions from Previous Site: (Narbeth Option) Continue on Whitney Avenue, then left on Naylors Run Road to Manoa Road. Look left up the hill on Manoa Road to the next street to the right (Rockwood Drive). Site includes present day Rockwood Drive and all of its houses.
Physical Address: Manoa Road and Rockwood Drive
GPS Coordinates: 39.97447, -75.30818
Parking: On street
Ownership: Private
Arcadia Book Page: No

Description and History: In 1911 the Philadelphia Pediatric Society recommended establishing a hospital designed solely for the care of infants, to address concerns about high infant mortality. Specialized pediatric and newborn care was then a new and controversial movement among America’s medical institutions. The Babies' Hospital of Philadelphia incorporated that year and went through a succession of temporary locations in the city until 1915. A donated house and lot on the north side of Manoa Road at Naylors Run in Haverford created a permanent location for a healthful rural hospital dedicated to infants, making the township a pioneering site for this concept. This 8-1/2 acre Babies’ Hospital facility existed at least through 1926. Today the site holds Rockwood Drive and its homes. The organization went on to also open a seashore branch in Beach Haven NJ in 1920 and build a six story Health Center Building at 7th and Delancey Streets in Philadelphia in 1921. In 1948 the funds and resources of Babies' Hospital of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Child Health Society were merged into the Fife Hamill Memorial Health Center for Southeast Philadelphia, occupying the Delancey Street location. When Fife Hamill closed in 1960, the Corporation of Babies' Hospital was merged with St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. [abstracted from College of Physicians of Philadelphia]