Interior components were selected and designed to be easily cleaned and disinfected after each surgical procedure, including the mosaic tile floor, and it was connected to a sterilizing room.

John Chapman Davie Jr. began lobbying for a hospital in Victoria in the mid 1880s, planning for a single-level pavilion design of interconnected buildings.

[2] The hospital's debt grew during the early 1890s, but as a result of addressing an 1893 smallpox epidemic, the city passed a bylaw allowing it to pay off the mortgage "as a show of appreciation".

[3] The hospital's board of directors debated potential uses of the funds, and on 7 October 1895 settled on building an operating room favoured by Davie.

[5] The cornerstone was installed on 15 May 1896 by Teresa Pemberton,[5] in a ceremony during which she was presented with a silver trowel to "show appreciation for her generous support and flexibility towards the project".

[6] The trowel's handle was carved from an oak timber taken from the Beaver, the first steamship to operate in the Pacific Northwest of North America.

[4] By July 1896, nearing completion of construction, the board of directors was informed that $500 would be required to equip the operating room; this was provided by the Women’s Auxiliary and another donation by Teresa Pemberton.

[1] Painted plaster covered the interior brick walls, and the concrete floor was overlain with a ceramic tile mosaic.

[10] In 1983, the Government of British Columbia cut its spending, including expenditures for health care capital projects, delaying the building's demolition.

[11] In 1995, Victoria City Council designated the building, including the operating room and the sterilizing ante-chamber, a municipal heritage site.

[4] It also represented a transition in hospital governance, from one of primarily charitable scope "for the poor and destitute" to being managed as a scientific institution.