Children's Mercy Research Institute and Hospital Hill

The history of medicine in Kansas City dates back to 1870, seventeen years after the city's incorporation, when the first hospital arose in what is now the Hospital Hill neighborhood. The evolution of hospitals and medical instruction often included facilities constructed in Hospital Hill, including the recent erection of Children's Mercy Research Institute. Its windows and lighting system mimics the DNA mutations and sequences of genetic anomalies found in patients with rare diseases. The lighting speaks to the profound advancement of medical science from 1870 to the twenty-first century.  

Hospital Hill, home of Kansas City's first public hospital in 1870, now exists as a complex consisting of several medical and medical-teaching facilities. The hospitals are located or near the famous Troost Avenue corridor. One of the newest hospitals, Children's Mercy Research Institute, has windows with unique lights and panels that look like specific DNA information found in patients afflicted with rare diseases. The lighting and nod to the complex research accomplished at the hospital speak to the tremendous advancement in medicine from 1870 to the 2020s, with much of it witnessed in Kansas City's Hospital Hill.

Although the incorporation of Kansas City transpired in 1853, the first standing hospital did not open until 1870 after seeing its population grow by more than 600% in the previous decade. The small medical facility known as City Hospital (later, Old City Hospital) opened, the first of many that emerged on property donated by Colonel Thomas Swope. Today, the land has grown and supported several hospitals and medical facilities, garnering it the name of Hosptial Hill. 

Kansas City experienced significant growth in hospitals during the 1880s, with seven openings during the decade. Between 1900 and 1910, five more hospitals arose, including long-time fixtures Trinity Lutheran (1906), the Downtown St. Mary's Hospital (1907), and General Hospital No. 1 (1908), one of just a handful of urban areas nationwide to offer free health care for the poor. During the Great Depression, General Hospital No. 2 opened at the site of the Old City Hospital in 1930, which served the city's minority population — a stark contrast to what one might have expected in an age of segregation. Still, General Hospital No. 2 only had five beds to serve 18,000 African Americans. It wasn't until Dr. John Edward Perry spearheaded the development of Wheatley-Provident Hospital one mile north (1826 Forest Avenue) in 1918 that a dedicated facility serving African Americans emerged. General Hospitals No. 1 and No. 2 later merged (in 1957), which paved the way for a new building with a new name: Truman Medical Center, which opened in 1976 and still stands today in Hospital Hill. 

The Children's Mercy Hospitals & Clinics are not far from Truman, whose history dates back to the turn of the twentieth century. In 1899, a small effort directed at children with physical deformities emerged, called the Free Bed Fund Association of Sick, Crippled, Deformed, and Ruptured Children. Inspired by a woman sadly attempting to give away her disabled five-year-old daughter, the one-bed facility grew to become Children's Mercy Hospitals & Clinics, including its 315-bed hospital on Hospital Hill. The $200 million nine-story glass building includes an abundance of space for research, as well as a unique and innovative set of light-colored panels, which spell out DNA sequences of genetic anomalies of patients who have contracted rare illnesses. Additionally, LED lights allow for glowing white panels at night while four panels, which depict DNA mutations found in patients at Children's Mercy, beam red.

Today, one will find at Hospital Hill several medical institutions: The University of Missouri-Kansas City Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy and Nursing; the University Health Truman Medical Center; the Children's Mercy Hospital; Center for Behavioral Medicine, and Truman Behavioral Health Network.

Boone, Dennis. "History in the Mending." Ingrams. ingrams.com. Accessed October 27, 2021. https://ingrams.com/article/history-in-the-mending/.

Lieberman, Lily. "New Children's Mercy building embodies culture of the institute it houses." Kansas City Business Journal. bizjournals.com. May 10, 2019. https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2019/05/10/childrens-mercy-research-institute-curran.html. 

Powers, Mathew and Clio Admin. "Wheatley-Provident Hospital." Clio: Your Guide to History. October 23, 2021. Accessed October 27, 2021. https://www.theclio.com/entry/140789.