Grey Nuns Hospital name carries centuries of care, from St. Albert orphanage to downtown Edmonton

The Grey Nuns Hospital's name carries centuries of history, tracing back to a Catholic order founded in 1737 by Saint Marguerite d'Youville in Montreal.

The Grey Nuns, formally the Sisters of Charity of Montreal, came west in the mid-to-late 19th century with a mission centred on caring for people who are poor, sick, orphaned, or otherwise in need. Three nuns—Sister Emery, Sister Adèle Lamy, and Sister Alphonse—arrived in the Edmonton area in 1859 and eventually settled in what is now St. Albert in 1863. There, they established an orphanage. A year later, the orphanage expanded to incorporate a school, and later a hospital, as the Grey Nuns continued responding to community needs.

Their work spread into Edmonton proper when the Grey Nuns Hospital and General Hospital opened downtown in 1895. The downtown hospital remained a cornerstone of Edmonton's healthcare system for nearly a century. In 1989, a new Grey Nuns Hospital opened south of the river. Acute care beds moved from the downtown location to the new facility, while the original downtown building was converted to continuing care.

Today, the Grey Nuns Hospital provides full-service acute care, while the former downtown General Hospital operates as a continuing care and hospice facility under Covenant Health. The new hospital was completed in 1988, when Edmonton's population was roughly 580,000. Today, the city's population is about 1.2 million.