History
The Dimock Center was founded on July 1, 1862 by Dr. Marie Zakrzewska as the New England Hospital for Women and Children. (It opened as a hospital of ten beds in a small wooden building on Pleasant Street.) Dimock was the first hospital in New England opened and operated by women for women, and only the second in the country. Noted prominently for its role in the history of women in medicine, Dimock became a leader in American healthcare. It was the only hospital in New England that combined medical, surgical, obstetrical, and pediatric services in a single institution. The Dimock Center was the first hospital in the country to establish a school for nurses and graduated America's first trained nurse, Miss Linda Richards in 1873, and the country's first black nurse, Mary Eliza Mahoney in 1879. In 1969, in response to community needs, The New England Hospital became