The hospital was founded by Gertrude Abbott (1836-1934), the foundress of an unofficial religious community, reportedly out of the experience of a poor, pregnant girl being brought to her in 1893 by a local policeman.
The following year she opened the hospital, initially located on Elizabeth Street in Strawberry Hills, as the St Margaret's Maternity Home.
In 1904, the hospital offered general gynecological services, and started an out-patients department, also with home visits by its staff.
[1] In 1910 the hospital moved to its final location at 435 Bourke Street, Darlinghurst, in a large art deco building.
Object Gallery occupies the original circular chapel designed and built by Ken Woolley in 1958.