The Janeway is the only children's hospital in the province and functions, in partnership with Health Sciences Centre, as a teaching hospital for the Memorial University of Newfoundland Faculty of Medicine under the direction of NL Health Services.

The facility was founded as the Dr. Charles Alderson Janeway Child Health Centre in 1966, using the former base hospital on the recently closed Pepperrell Air Force Base in the east end of the city.

It was named after Charles Alderson Janeway, a pediatrician who is credited with helping to establish the hospital.

Demolition of the old facility located in the former Pepperrel AFB started in September 2008 by Kelloway Construction, hired by the provincial government at a cost of $924,129.

Clean-up of the site was completed in 2010, and in September 2015, a new long-term care facility named "Pleasant View Towers"[1] was opened on Newfoundland Drive.