From the WCH Archives
On this day 90 years ago on October 20, 1934, a ceremony was held in front of the construction site for 76 Grenville Street to lay the foundation stone of the new Women’s College Hospital (WCH). With more than 400 people in attendance, Canada’s Prime Minister R. B. Bennett paid “tribute of esteem and regard to the women of my country for this monument of their courage, their vision, and their hope”. The ceremony concluded with a time capsule, housed in a copper box, being placed into the foundation stone.
This ceremony marked an important milestone in the history of WCH. The construction of the new modern 10-storey hospital enabled WCH to provide more opportunities for female physicians, surgeons, specialists, and learners in the medical field; increase its inpatient and outpatient services; and launch its own formal research program with a focus on women’s health.
As an editorial in the Toronto Daily Star entitled Fulfilment of a Dream explained “with the laying of the cornerstone of the new Women’s College Hospital, in Grenville Street, a ceremony that takes place today, many devoted women will see the fulfilling of a dream. They have worked for years and often in the teeth of strenuous opposition to make their dream come true, and now their reward is before them”.
Today, the original foundation stone and time capsule can be viewed in WCH’s Peter Gilgan Atrium.