Home for Destitute Crippled Children From the First Annual Report for the Year 1898 Close to the turn of the century, children afflicted with diseases such as polio and infantile paralysis were labeled “crippled.” They were destined to a limited life at best, and if poor, still greater suffering due in part to the inadequate health care systems of the time. It was during this period in the late 1880s that a group of concerned volunteers gathered together to form an organization to care for these deprived crippled children. With tireless dedication they succeeded in founding the Home for Destitute Crippled Children and by 1892 were officially chartered to operate as a pediatric care facility on Chicago’s south side offering impoverished children the benefits of free medical care. By 1928, the success of the Home led to an affiliation agreement with the University of Chicago whereby the Home leased two wings of a building under construction and in turn the University furnished the medical and nursing staffs along with providing administrative services. When completed in 1931, the facility made a combined six-story structure at 59th and Ellis Avenue with a capacity of over one hundred beds. In the years that followed, significant advances in the science of pediatrics and ever-greater developments in the care and treatment of crippled children substantially reduced the demand for specialized operations. As certain diseases were conquered or made treatable and modern medicine of the time was requiring more flexibility in its institutions, the need for ailment specific facilities was becoming obsolete. In response, the Home and the University agreed in 1960 to consolidate and jointly plan the construction of a still greater hospital for children. The new Home, completed in 1967, was named after famed Chicago businessman Silvain S. Wyler and his wife Arma. After his death, widow Arma Wyler continued the generous support that helped make the Home a recognized world class institution in the field of pediatric care. During the decade of the eighties, the University’s strong research focus began affecting the availability of more broadly needed community based pediatric services. This, along with a change in their corporate structure during the 1980s, led to an agreement to terminate the relationship so that the University and the Home could each continue with their long-established goals. In keeping with the tradition of the Home, the Children’s Care Foundation was formed to carry forward the pledge made to needy children by the founders a century earlier and dedicated to the charitable legacy started in 1889.