1915 - The Scottish Rite Convalescent Hospital for Crippled Children opened in Decatur, Georgia to help young Georgians crippled by polio. It was the first hospital in the United States devoted to the orthopaedic care of children and served as a model for later Shriner’s Hospitals for Crippled Children.

1919 - The hospital was renamed the Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Children and received national attention under the guidance of its first Medical Director, Michael Hoke, M.D.

1926 - The reputation of Dr. Hoke and the hospital led the then-Governor of New York, Franklin D. Roosevelt, to persuade Dr. Hoke to direct the National Polio Foundation located in Warm Springs, Georgia.

The next Medical Director, Hiram Kite, M.D. kept the Scottish Rite Hospital in a leadership role in pediatric orthopaedics achieving international recognition for his treatment of patients with clubfoot deformities.

1965 - Wood Lovell, M.D. followed Drs. Hoke and Kite becoming the third Medical Director of the Scottish Rite Hospital. Dr. Lovell’s leadership in the emerging specialty of pediatric orthopaedics led him to become a founding member of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA) and instituted the first post-graduate fellowship training program in pediatric orthopaedic surgery at the Scottish Rite Hospital. Under his direction, the hospital, which had mainly been an orthopaedic institution, evolved into a full service children’s facility with primary care pediatrics and all medical and surgical sub-specialties represented. In addition, several specialty clinics were instituted to allow specialists from multiple medical disciplines to confront complex pediatric disorders in a coordinated manner.

1982- After Dr. Lovell’s retirement, Dr. Raymond Morrissy became the fourth Medical Director at Scottish Rite Hospital. The same year, the four full-time pediatric orthopaedic surgeons practicing at Scottish Rite founded Children’s Orthopaedics of Atlanta (COA). COA has continued to provide pediatric orthopaedic care for patients at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta since that time.