The origins of St. Francis Hospital & Heart Center can be traced back to 1922, when
Carlos W. Munson, a wealthy Flower Hill resident and the heir to the
Munson Steamship Company – along with his wife, Mabel, gave a 15-acre parcel of their property to the
Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. The
Franciscan Missionaries of Mary opened a convent on the land and used it as a camp for poor and chronically-ill children from
New York City. In 1937, two percent of
Brooklyn schoolchildren suffered from
rheumatic heart conditions and needed
charitable healthcare assistance. As a result, the camp was transformed into a cardiac
sanatorium for children. Around 1957,
Frederic P. Wiedersum Associates designed a reconstructed dormitory after it had been damaged in a fire; the firm also designed buildings at the hospital in the 1970s. In December 1983,
First Lady Nancy Reagan visited St. Francis Hospital after she and
President Ronald Reagan brought two children, Ah Ji Sook (7) and Lee Kil Woo (4), from
South Korea to the United States in November 1983 for
open-heart surgery at St. Francis Hospital. Mrs. Reagan held a press conference at St. Francis Hospital that December 15th; the surgery saved the lives of both children. In 1988, an acute care wing at St. Francis Hospital was dedicated to Nancy Reagan for saving the lives of the two children in 1983. Reagan attended the Nancy Reagan Hall's dedication ceremony and opening in October 4, 1988. In 2012, St. Francis Hospital renovated their emergency room, expanding it and making it more energy-efficient. ==Rankings and recognition ==