In 1928, Henrietta Egleston Hospital for Children opened in the Old Fourth Ward east of downtown Atlanta at 640 Forrest Avenue (now Ralph McGill Blvd.).

A prominent local and women's rights activist Ella Lillian Wall Van Leer played an important role at the hospital as its trustee, President of the Auxiliary department and Director of Volunteers until 1976.

This hospital saw further expansions through the years, including the opening of the George and Irene Woodruff Pavilion Oct. 14, 1981, and the addition of 70 beds in 1993.

[3] The health system had requested that the Atlanta city government annex the area including Egleston Hospital.

With the opening of the new 19-story, 2-million-square-foot facility, clinical services and patients at Egleston moved to Arthur M. Blank Hospital.