It is one of the oldest and biggest university hospitals in South Korea.

[2][3] This is the oldest Western-style hospital in the country, founded in 1885 as a royal hospital named "Gwanghyewon" (Korean: 광혜원; Hanja: 廣惠院) by Horace N. Allen, an American doctor and medical missionary.

Both Presbyterian and Methodist medical and educational missionaries from the United States were active in Korea for decades.

After 1910, when Japan took over rule of Korea, it added new requirements for hospitals and staff which the missionaries, in some cases, struggled to meet.

In 1954, Florence J. Murray, a Canadian medical missionary became superintendent of Severance.