[3] It was located on Siccawei Road in the Shanghai French Concession, outside the West Gate (Ximen) of the Chinese city (now in Huangpu District); for this reason, it was commonly known as the Ximen or West Gate Hospital (Chinese: 西門醫院).

Together the two branches occupy 4.33 hectares (10.7 acres) and have a total floor space of 84,600 square metres (911,000 sq ft).

[1] The land, building, furnishing, wire-beds, instruments, and salary of a physician and nurse for seven years were all provided, at an expense of US$35,000, by Margaret Williamson, for whom the hospital was named.

The second was in Fuzhou by Dr. Sigourney Trask(1877), and the third in Tianjin by Dr. Leonora Howard (Isabella Fisher Hospital, 1882);[9] both were under the Methodist Episcopal Board of Missions.

[8] After the Reifsnyder-built building burned down, a new one was constructed in 1889 with funds given wholly by Chinese and foreigners in Shanghai.

Approximately three-fourths of the support of the institution came from fees and local contributions, mostly Chinese, and one-fourth from the income of beds which are endowed in the United States.

[2] During the Battle of Shanghai in 1937, it organized emergency rescue teams to treat women and children wounded in the fighting.

Catherine and railway station street car line passed the place about 2 miles (3.2 km) out from the French Bund.

Owing to its proximity to canals holding stagnant water, the hospital grounds were infested with mosquitoes.

Having heard a great deal of the lack of readiness of Chinese women to take advantage of the means they possessed of obtaining medical assistance, she devoted a generous sum to form a fund for the establishment of a hospital for Chinese women, to be built under the Woman's Union Missionary Society, of which Society she was one of the founders.

[3] Bishop Boone presided at the hospital's opening, and addresses were made by Dr. Alexander Jamieson and Rev.

The Committee consisted of Reifsnyder (Secretary); Miss Burnett (Treasurer); and Mrs. Hughes, Mrs. Wetmore, Mrs. Low, and Dr. Jamieson; while the visiting physician was Dr. H. W.

[11] Professor Wang Shuzhen [zh], who was appointed president of the hospital in 1952, developed it into a full-fledged medical research center.