In 1951, the new Variety Club Heart Hospital – North America’s first dedicated cardiac hospital – opened on campus with a 40-bed pediatric cardiology unit and a playroom, classroom, and auditorium. This set the stage for children’s heart breakthroughs at the University of Minnesota in the 1950s, including the world’s first successful open-heart surgery using cross-circulation ever performed on a child.

In 1955, Fairview Health Services opened its first dedicated 240-bed and 40-crib pediatric unit at its hospital campus on the West Bank of the Mississippi River. Two years later, Fairview became the first general hospital in Minneapolis to offer special mental health and rehabilitation facilities. In 1962, the hospital introduced a new adolescent/young adult unit, the first of its kind in the Upper Midwest. 

In the 1960s and 1970s, Fairview continues to expand, opening Southdale Hospital in 1965, adding Princeton Hospital (later renamed Northland Medical Center) in 1974, and ten years later opening Ridges Hospital. Over time, Fairview’s network of community clinics also begins to grow.

In 1986, the University of Minnesota’s hospital services were consolidated to a new, state-of-the-art building along Oak Street on the Mississippi River’s East Bank. The new hospital featured three general pediatric units, a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), a child and adolescent psychiatric unit, a pediatric bone marrow transplant unit, and a full array of affiliated specialty clinics. The name of the combined clinical areas for children was University-Variety Hospital for Children. 

In 1996, the University of Minnesota sought partners to purchase its East Bank hospital campus.  At the time, directly across the river from the East Bank facility was Fairview-Riverside and St. Mary’s Campus, two hospitals owned by Fairview. Under Fairview ownership, both St. Mary’s and Fairview-Riverside were consolidated by Fairview in 1997 with the University’s East Bank hospital, resulting in what is now called the M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center - East Bank and M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center - West Bank.

In 2011, Fairview and the University of Minnesota opened a beautiful, dedicated children’s hospital on the West Bank and moved all pediatric services to the new facility. Initially known as University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital, the hospital was eventually renamed and is now M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital. Today the children’s hospital features the Twin Cities’ widest range of pediatric specialists and 254 staffed beds.

In 2019, Fairview, University of Minnesota Physicians and the University of Minnesota announced a new joint clinical agreement to create M Health Fairview, representing the best of academic medicine and community medicine.

Today, M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital is the heart of our children’s health system that combines convenient, family-friendly care with access to leading-edge breakthroughs and renowned specialists – where and when you need them. Our purpose is to bring hope and healing to the children and families we serve by caring for one child at a time, while advancing education, research, and care on behalf of all children.