Our Story

When we opened our doors, our founders made a promise — to provide the highest quality of compassionate and innovative care. Over the years, we have remained steadfast in our commitment to be responsive to the changing and increasingly complex needs of those we serve. 

It all began in 1902, when Mary Irwin Laughlin established the Memorial Home for Crippled Children to care for a six-year-old boy whose legs had been severed in a train accident. What started with the care of a single child quickly grew into one of the nation’s leading pediatric care facilities.

By 1919, 75 percent of our patients had been affected by polio. And for nearly 40 years, we provided a haven for children and young adults struggling to overcome the effects of the disease.

In the 1960s, we were serving children with a wide range of disabilities. And in 1968, we became the nation’s first comprehensive rehabilitation center for children to be accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities.

During the 1970s, we responded to the emerging needs of an aging population by creating adult inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services. As we evolved to meet the changing needs of the families we served, we changed our name from the Home for Crippled Children to The Rehabilitation Institute of Pittsburgh.

February 1998 marked another milestone in our evolution. That’s when we transferred our adult services to the UPMC Health System (UPMC), allowing us to reaffirm our original mission — promoting the well-being of children, young people and their families and providing services that meet their special needs. We sold our Squirrel Hill building to UPMC and began renting space for our programs. To better reflect our renewed focus on children, we changed our name to The Children’s Institute. 

 

Today, The Children’s Institute is an independent, non-profit organization providing individualized pediatric services along a broad continuum.