St. Mary’s Hospital celebrates 100 Years of serving Montrealers

St. Mary’s is the first hospital in Montreal to obtain a “Baby Friendly Accreditation” from the World Health Organization, and a UNICEF accreditation for its successful breastfeeding program

The Shaughnessy Mansion was St. Mary’s first location

St Mary’s Hospital is celebrating its 100^th Anniversary during 2024. What started as a community hospital founded by Montreal’s Irish community led by Dr. Donald Hingston in 1924 in Shaughnessy House on Dorchester Boulevard (now René-Lévesque Boulevard.) is now an expansive urban medical campus serving a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual clientele. Today, the medical and professional staff can speak to patients in forty languages, ensuring patients feel comfortable in a time of medical stress. The hospital staff has never lost the sense of community and human scale that were the hallmarks of the institution on opening day one hundred years ago.

The new St. Mary’s opened in 1934

At its inception, St. Mary’s Hospital was housed in Shaughnessy House, (now the headquarters of the Canadian Centre for Architecture) and operated at that location for ten years. The buildings at the current location on Lacombe Avenue welcomed the first 20 patients on November 25^th, 1934 who were transferred by ambulance from the old hospital to the new. The sense of community remains very real, and many medical and professional staff members have worked at St. Mary’s for decades. Couples have formed and marriages have taken place. Many adult children work at the hospital that employed their parents. Retirees often return for special events.

Mary Gallery is the great granddaughter of the hospital’s Founder, Dr. Donald Hingston. Along with generations of her family who preceded her, Mary is passionate about supporting St. Mary’s. In her remarks while attending the hospital’s annual Hingston Dinner, Mary stated; “When our great ancestor Dr. Donald Hingston (1878 – 1950) founded St. Mary’s hospital, he steadfastly committed that patients be treated with heartfelt whole-person care of the highest level. I am here to inform you that special trademark still exists today, and it stems from the relationships that make up this gem of an institution.”

Senator John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy attended the 1954 St. Mary’s Ball

Continuing, Mary added; “The Hingston Dinner began in February of 1950 when Donald Hingston hosted an oyster party for the interns in celebration of the opening of the new Nurses Residence. The event eventually grew into an annual dinner that today remains an important tradition for St. Mary’s Physicians, Dentists and Pharmacists.

St. Mary’s provides primary health care services to residents of Cote-des-Neiges, Notre-Dame-de-Grace, Outremont, Town of Mount Royal, Westmount and beyond.  It maintains a historic patient flow between the Lakeshore General and Jewish General, the Douglas and the MUHC.

1973 class of nursing students

The internationally acclaimed School of Nursing was begun and operated by the Grey Nuns and later the Sisters of Providence from 1925 to 1972, when the provincial government transferred the program to the CEGEP system. To this day, St. Mary’s employees focus on ‘Whole Person Care’ a methodology introduced and taught by the nuns. The solid reputation of St. Mary’s prompted the Canadian Armed Forces to select St. Mary’s nurses as their instructors when soldiers were sent into seniors residences during COVID.

In addition to its many long-serving medical and professional employees, St. Mary’s has enjoyed an enviable continuity of community-minded people serving on its Board and fundraising teams. Besides Mary Gallery, other long-standing supporters include the families of;  Richard and Janet Macklem, Donald Clarke, Craig Shannon, Geoff Molson, Rick Renaud, John Thompson, Jim Cherry, Peter Kruyt, Bridget Fetterly, Sylvie Chagnon, Terry Didus, Neil Hindle, Christine Lengvari and Murray Steinberg to name a few.

St. Mary’s Ball 2017 volunteers with Ball Presidents Andrew and Geoff Molson

2024 Centennial baby with parents Payalben and Vishel Patel 
Photo: Gerry Vincent

St. Mary’s has one of the largest birthing centres in Quebec, welcoming an average of 4,000 babies annually. It is the first hospital on the island of Montreal to receive accreditation as a Baby Friendly Hospital by the WHO (World Health Organization) and UNICEF; for promoting breastfeeding as part of an international nutrition strategy.

McGill University Chairs of Family and Community Medicine Research and Community Cancer Care both operate at St. Mary’s. Major research themes include; Mental Health, emergency services, primary health care and family medicine, biomedical informatics in primary care, quality improvement, health experiences, and clinical research in Maternal and child health, hematology, breast cancer and diabetic retinopathy. The Research Centre has strong national and international collaborations between individual researchers, staff and institutions that span the academic and health system networks.

St. Mary’s Special Events

St Mary’s Ball – November 1, 2024 at the Windsor Concourse
St. Mary’s has several major fundraising events every year that enhance the sense of community as well as raising much needed funds. Perhaps the best known is St. Mary’s Ball, which this year will be taking place on November 1 at The Windsor Station Concourse. The Ball is a coveted event on the social calendar of Montreal. Last year an impressive $1,503, 965 was raised and earmarked for the Mental Health services.

“St. Mary’s Family Medicine Department is the largest residency training facility in Canada.”

2023 Fifty Year Nurses Reunion

St. Mary’s Girls for the Cure This year is the 30th edition the annual walk. On September 26, 2024, more than 1,100 students will rally at Percival Molson Stadium around a common cause: to support women living with cancer.

Since the first steps taken in 1994, tens of thousands of girls from Montreal secondary schools have taken part. The event has raised upwards of $3.6 million dollars, advocated for awareness, and directly impacted research, treatment, and survival rates for women fighting cancer.

Seven Montreal schools – Bialik High School, Miss Edgar’s and Miss Cramp’s School (ECS), Lower Canada College (LCC), Sacred Heart School of Montréal, The Study, Trafalgar School for Girls, and Loyola High School – are all taking part this fall.

100 years later, St. Mary’s still practices whole person care

Not surprisingly. Golf tournaments are a popular way to raise funds and the  St. Mary’s Masters Tournament sets the bar high. Taking place each June at the world-renowned  Royal Montreal Golf Club, the prestigious event sells out every year. The St. Mary’s Masters plays a pivotal role in raising funds to advance patient care, purchase equipment and support research and teaching.

St. Mary’s Hospital is celebrating 100 years of providing medical care with the same dedication to whole person care as it did on the first day of operation in 1924. From the housekeeping staff to its most gifted surgeons, the people at St. Mary’s who work so diligently to provide medical treatments and services to Montrealers are at the core of what makes this “gem” of a hospital a success in all aspects of medicine. For more information about St Mary’s or to make a donation, buy a ticket to The Ball or other upcoming event, please visit: www.stmaryshospitalfoundation.ca

Staffers participating in the Hingston Run

More fun facts about
St Mary’s Hospital

• 1924: The St. Mary’s Auxiliary was established when the hospital opened in 1924, and Dr. Hingston’s mother Lady Margaret Hingston served as the auxiliary’s first President.

• 1954: Canada’s first Hemophilia Centre for adults opened at St. Mary’s under the direction of blood specialist Dr. Cecil Harris.

• Ongoing: Treats one of the largest cancer populations in Montreal.

• 2008: St. Mary’s becomes a McGill University Affiliated Hospital with CHAU status, setting the highest quality standards of excellence in research, teaching and patient care.

• 2022: After pioneering cataract eye surgery, St. Mary’s was designated as a high-volume cataract centre by the provincial government.

• 2021: Already performing the largest number of hip and knee replacements in Quebec, St. Mary’s was the first hospital in Quebec to acquire a surgical robot specifically designed for knee and hip replacement.