Our History
A Glimpse of the Past
Emma Pendleton Bradley's portrait hangs at Bradley
Hospital. The hospital is dedicated to her memory.
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Bradley Hospital was the nation's first neuropsychiatric hospital
for children. The hospital was named for George and Helen Bradley's
only child Emma Pendleton Bradley, who was born in 1879.
Emma was stricken with encephalitis at the age of seven. The disease
left her with multiple disabilities, including epilepsy, mental
retardation and cerebral palsy. This tragedy sparked the Bradleys
to conduct a worldwide search for a cure or a treatment for Emma's
condition. Because psychiatry and neurology were in their infancy,
hospitals were solely for adults and pediatric services were not
yet available, the Bradleys arranged around-the-clock medical care
for Emma at their summer home in Pomfret, Connecticut.
After eighteen years of treatment, Emma showed no improvement.
George and Helen began to accept their daughter's fate but wanted
to ensure that other families would not share their family's struggle.
In their wills, both George and Helen Bradley requested that the
Baton House, the family's Providence estate, be converted into a
treatment facility for children. The board of trustees decided that
more space and a less urban setting were necessary for the institution,
and so the beautiful home on Eaton Street was sold and 35 acres
of wooded land was purchased on the Barrington Parkway. The ground
was broken in 1929, and two years later the institution opened its
doors.
The Emma Pendleton Bradley Home was officially dedicated on April
8,1931 during a ceremony in the hospital's Pine Room. In accordance
with the terms of George Bradley's will, the facility gave first
preference to poor, needy children from Rhode Island. Families were
only billed if they had the means to pay. And so, 25 years after
George Bradley's death, the Bradleys' dream was realized. It is
clear today that the dream was only the beginning.
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