page_title: Red House Hospital
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Red House Hospital / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Margaret Williamson Hospital (1915)
context_page_description: The Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University, commonly known as the Red House Hospital, is a teaching hospital in Shanghai, China, affiliated with the Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University. It is rated Grade 3, Class A, the highest rating in the Chinese medical system.
  Founded in 1884 as Margaret Williamson Memorial Hospital for Women and Children, by Elizabeth Reifsnyder, it was the first hospital opened in Shanghai exclusively for the care of Chinese women and children. It was located on Siccawei Road in the Shanghai French Concession, outside the West Gate of the Chinese city; for this reason, it was commonly known as the Ximen or West Gate Hospital. The nonsectarian missionary hospital was established by the Woman's Union Missionary Society. A second branch was opened in Yangpu District in 2009.
context_section_description: The land, building, furnishing, wire-beds, instruments, and salary of a physician and nurse for seven years were all provided, at an expense of US$35,000, by Margaret Williamson, for whom the hospital was named. A maternity ward was added, at a cost of $17,000, by two sisters of Princeton, New Jersey, as well as another ward through a legacy from Dr. Wells Williams. The first piece of land was secured in 1883, the year of the donor's death. Eight more pieces were later added, all outside the city limits. In addition to the medical buildings, there was a home for medical workers, and a house for nurses and assistants.
  The Women's Union Missionary Society was founded for the purpose of evangelizing local women, mainly by the founding of schools and orphanages, and in this instance, by the founding of a hospital for women by the American medical missionary Elizabeth Reifsnyder. While women rarely went to Chinese hospitals, commonly only under circumstances of very great suffering, it was believed that the Margaret Williamson Hospital would be filled to overflowing.
  The hospital's was formally opened on 3 June 1884. The building was a two-storied structure on the road to Sikawei, not far from the West Gate. This was the fourth hospital opened exclusively for women in China. The first was in Peking by Dr. Lucinda L. Combs (Peking Womens Hospital, 1874). The second was in Foochow by Dr. Sigourney Trask(1877), and the third in Tientsin by Dr. Leonora Howard (Isabella Fisher Hospital, 1882); both were under the Methodist Episcopal Board of Missions.
  After the Reifsnyder-built building burned down, a new one was constructed in 1889 with funds given wholly by Chinese and foreigners in Shanghai. Approximately three-fourths of the support of the institution came from fees and local contributions, mostly Chinese, and one-fourth from the income of beds which are endowed in the United States. The doctors' and nurses' salaries were paid by the missionary board.
  This institution admitted only Chinese women and children, with boys up to 12 years of age. No foreigners or contagious cases were taken in. 56,620 out-patients and 1,034 in-patients (351 obstetrical) were treated in 1914. In 1915 the fees charged patients were $0.15 (Mexican) daily (in big wards); $0.50 (Mexican) daily (in semi-private wards); and $2, $4, and $5 (Mexican) daily (beds in private rooms). Those unable to pay—a large proportion of the patients—were treated without charge.
  The hospital was later expanded by the American doctor Al Ralph and renamed as the Red House Maternity and Infant Hospital. During the Battle of Shanghai in 1937, it organized emergency rescue teams to treat women and children wounded in the fighting. In 1942, the hospital was transferred to Chinese ownership, and Kuang Cui'e (邝翠娥) served as the first Chinese president. It became a teaching hospital of the Shanghai Medical College in 1952, and was designated the obstetrics and gynecology hospital of the Red Cross Society of Shanghai in 1992.
  In 2009, a second branch was opened at 128 Shenyang Road in Yangpu District. The new location has a floor space of 60,000 square metres (650,000 sq ft) and 450 beds.
caption: Margaret Williamson Hospital (1915)
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