The Hospital of St. Vincent DePaul, Norfolk’s first public hospital, was incorporated by the Virginia legislature on March 3, 1856

The eight-room hospital served 100 patients in its first year. As the Sisters’ mission expanded, they added a clinic for the poor in 1892 and started a training school for nurses in 1893. In 1899, a fire nearly destroyed the hospital that had grown to 150 rooms; however, the hospital continued to operate out of other buildings and undamaged wings until the rebuilt, larger
hospital opened in 1901.

In 1939, the need was recognized for a larger, more modern facility. The hospital purchased land at the corner of Granby Street and Kingsley Lane and constructed a new brick building with a 259-bed capacity. The new facility, named DePaul Hospital, admitted its first patients in May 1944. By 1956, DePaul Hospital had grown into a modern medical center admitting more than 17,000 patients annually and treating 23,000 patients in its emergency room.