Queen Victoria Convalescent Home for Children

The Queen Victoria Convalescent Home for Children opened at Mount Lofty in 1898. The home was operated by the Adelaide Children’s Hospital as a Convalescent home for children recovering from illness. It operated until the early 1940s.

The Queen Victoria Convalescent Home for Children was built at Mount Lofty in 1897 and opened in 1898. Built and named in honour of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, the home was operated by the Adelaide Children’s Hospital as a Convalescent home where children recovering from illness could go and ‘gain strength and health in the pure hill air’.

Situated on large grounds, the Home was built at a cost of £1,734 and it was reported that £1,000 of that amount was raised by the fund raising activities of the children of the Sunbeam Society. £518 was spent after the opening, adding a large underground water tank and a sunroom/children’s playroom that came off the one large ward.

In 1899 newspapers reported that on average 10 to 12 children were convalescing at the Home at one time. By 1905 there had been 366 children admitted the Home since its opening. In 1909 a reporter noted that some of the patients admitted were tuberculosis cases. In May 1941 papers reported that the Home was caring for 16 children.

The Queen Victoria Convalescent Home for Children operated until the early 1940s and later became a holiday home for nurses. The building was auctioned by the Hospital on 17 September 1947.