The Public Health Champion Who Founded Oakland's First Children's Hospital

It all started in 1913, with a clinic housed inside an old donkey barn. The improvised medical practice was operated by a nurse so formidable and determined, not only did she provide all of the equipment needed to make the clinic functional, she worked without pay until it had sufficient donations to survive.

The nurse’s name was Bertha Wright and the clinic was all part of her larger mission to open a hospital dedicated to the care of babies and children in Oakland and Berkeley. Fifteen months after her practice in the barn opened its doors, Bertha’s hard work paid off with the opening of the area’s first children’s hospital — an institution that started in an old mansion, but continues to survive to this day as UCSF’s Benioff Children’s Hospital. (It was renamed in 2014, after decades as Children’s Hospital Oakland.)

Bertha’s reputation as a dedicated and hardworking nurse was established far earlier than the hospital. Born in Piedmont, the middle child of three, she graduated from the California Women’s Hospital School of Nursing in San Francisco in 1901, at the age of 25. She went on to work both there and at the Nurses’ Settlement House in Potrero Hill, where she served a large population of struggling immigrants. After the 1906 earthquake, Bertha tended to the sick and wounded in refugee camps all over the city.

In 1907, as the Bay Area struggled to rebuild after the 1906 earthquake and subsequent fires, community groups and a variety of charities banded together to form the Charitable Organization Society of Berkeley. Wright was appointed Home Secretary and, while serving in that role, helped to establish the Berkeley Day Nursery, the first organization of its kind in California to offer subsidized childcare.

The nursery was funded by the City of Berkeley, the Berkeley Community Chest, the United Crusade, public donations and sliding scale payments from parents. Prior to the nursery opening, working women were forced to leave their children at local orphan asylums while they did their jobs. The nursery continued caring for local children until 1965.

In 1910, Bertha also became the first district nurse to serve underprivileged children in Alameda County. In her mission to get care to the needy by any means necessary, she went on to co-found the Public Health Nurses’ Association of Alameda County and also taught public health nursing at UC Berkeley. In her role as a visiting nurse, Bertha is said to have journeyed to hundreds of homes a week on her trusty horse and buggy. It was during these visits that Bertha became aware of the overwhelming need for hospital services that were dedicated specifically to the needs of children.

During one 1912 meeting of the Berkeley Commission of Public Charities, it was noted that:

Ever since Miss Wright has been in Berkeley, she has [believed] that much of her effort has been wasted because of this lack of a proper place for sick children. The need of a hospital for the babies among whom we work is especially urgent because of the crowded home conditions, a certain ignorance on the part of the parents and their limited incomes, reasons which do not exist in the homes of those in more comfortable circumstances.

Wright was determined that children should not suffer due to the financial hardships of their parents. When the Baby Hospital first opened on September 16, 1914, the cost was supposed to be $1 a day for ward beds and $2.50 for private rooms, but fewer than 10 per cent of patients usually paid the full fee — if any fee at all. The hospital was able to stay open only because of a tireless group of local women who relentlessly fundraised at fairs, dinners, fashion shows and in their own communities.

At the time of its opening, the hospital housed a 20-bed ward on the first floor, a 10-bed ward on the second, along with five private rooms. The staff was small: three nurses, a secretary, a cook and a houseboy. Doctors were summoned from other hospitals when their assistance was required.

In that first year, the Baby Hospital treated 611 children. That same year, Bertha’s smaller clinic on the property saw more than 6,000 patients. In 1916, the hospital established a dental clinic. But hospital growth happened quickly. Sheer demand forced the hospital to open new wings in 1928 and 1948. By 1945, it was treating 24,500 patients a year.

Even before the hospital had opened, Bertha had begun holding prenatal and baby hygiene classes at her clinic. She also helped organize the first “baby saving fairs” on the West Coast. A maternity clinic at the hospital helped to safely deliver newborns. But Bertha’s dedication to children did not stop in her working life.

During her time with the Charitable Organization Society, she met social worker Mabel Weed, who was also key in establishing and fundraising for the Baby Hospital. The women first moved in together in the early 1920s, and went on to lovingly raise three adopted children, Philip, Barbara and Jean. They also fostered a great many others. In fact, the 1940 census shows that, when Bertha was 62 and Mabel was 68, they were still fostering children in Palo Alto. Bertha even continued after Mabel’s death in 1957.

Bertha passed away in 1971 just one month shy of her 95th birthday, after a lifetime spent in the service of children, women and all those living on the margins. She was buried close to her beloved Mabel in Alto Mesa Cemetery, Palo Alto.

It’s clear from both her work and personal history that Bertha Wright was blessed with an uncommon drive and an unconventional approach to life. She is also said to have been rather imposing. In 1967 book The Hospital Women Built for Children by Murray Morgan, Bertha is described as: “Tall and rawboned, dedicated and undemure, she could face down a practical objection with a skeptical glance. A Berkeley businessman recalls fondly, ‘She could always make me feel as if I were unbuttoned.’”

Perhaps Bertha’s uniqueness can be attributed to what American Nursing: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume 3 describes as “her circle of progressive feminist women friends,” as well as her “bold and adventurous family of eccentrics and inventors. A family that never said ‘What will people think?’”

To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the Rebel Girls homepage.