Early history The hospital was founded in the summer of 1891 in
Westfield, New Jersey. On June 30, 1891, local residents held a meeting discussing how to help local children living in the tenements, and organized into a board of managers with William G. Peckham and Laura Thurston Peckham organizing. Laura Peckham became president. They raised money from local churches, and the hospital opened at Levi Cory House at Mountain Avenue and New Providence Road on July 15, 1892. 59 city children stayed at the home over the summer, with two-week stays each. The home became a hospital as well, when it became apparent many of the children needed medical attention. The hospital filed a certificate of incorporation on April 4, 1893 as Children's Country Home. It later moved to New Providence Road in
Mountainside in 1896. In 1962, it became Children's Specialized Hospital. In 1988, it founded its Pediatric Long Term Care Unit for 25 children, and also opened the hospital's Outpatient Center in Fanwood. Children's Specialized Hospital joined the
Robert Wood Johnson Health System in 1999.
Later history In 2000, the hospital became responsible for the Rosemary Cuccaro Pediatric Medical Day Care Center in Elizabeth. In 2012, the hospital released research showing that six underserved communities in New Jersey cities had higher rates of
autism. The test involved the screening of 1,000 children from Newark, Plainfield, Elizabeth, Trenton, New Brunswick and Bridgeton, and was funded by the
New Jersey Governor's Council for Medical Research and Treatment of Autism. In 2014,
L’Oreal raised $625,000 for the Children's Specialized Hospital Foundation, with the funds to be support the expansion of the PSE&G Children's Specialized Hospital. It allowed eight beds to be added to the 60-bed inpatient hospital in New Brunswick. Around 2011, the hospital began focusing a lot on research into rehabilitation in five big areas: autism, mobility, cognition, brain injury, and chronic illness. By 2016, the hospital was doing research with the
Kessler Foundation (of the
Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation) in conjunction with the
New Jersey Department of Education to study in-patient stay outcomes at school after discharge from the hospital. It also had around 60 different research projects going, studying topics such as autism and eksoskeletons to help with walking. ==Current locations==