Why is it called the 'Grey Nuns Hospital,' anyway?

Do you ever drive by a place and wonder how it got its name? We do, and recently, we found ourselves wondering about the Grey Nuns Hospital.

As you can probably guess, it’s named after the Grey Nuns. But who exactly were they, and how did they end up lending their name to one of Edmonton’s biggest hospitals?

The Grey Nuns, or the Sisters of Charity of Montreal, have been caring for people since 1737, when the order was founded by Saint Marguerite d’Youville.

Their mission centres on caring for people who are poor, sick, orphaned, or otherwise in need. They came west in the mid-to-late 19th century.

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In 1859, three Grey Nuns from Montreal, Sister Emery, Sister Adèle Lamy, and Sister Alphonse, came to the Edmonton area. They eventually settled in what is now St. Albert in 1863.

There, they established an orphanage. A year later, the orphanage evolved to incorporate a school, and later a hospital, as the Grey Nuns continued responding to the needs of the community.

Their work would later spread into Edmonton as the Grey Nuns Hospital and General Hospital opened in Edmonton in 1895.

The downtown hospital remained an important part of Edmonton’s healthcare system for nearly a century.

City of Edmonton Archives

In 1989, the new Grey Nuns Hospital opened south of the river. The acute care beds were moved to the new hospital, while the former was converted into continuing care.

City of Edmonton Archives

Today, the hospital continues to provide full-service acute care, while the old General Hospital operates as a continuing care and hospice facility, both under Covenant Health.

So, there you have it! While Grey Nuns may be Edmonton’s newest hospital, its name carries centuries of history with it.

And here’s another interesting bit of history we found along the way: the hospital was completed in 1988, when Edmonton had a population of roughly 580,000. Today, our population is about 1.2 million.