Jewish General Hospital - Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research

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The Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research (LDI) opened its doors in 1969, some 30 years after the founding of its parent institution, Montreal’s world-renowned Jewish General Hospital (JGH).
 

The story of the LDI began three years earlier, when the non-profit Eldee Foundation initiated talks with the JGH with a view to funding a medical research institute at the hospital. The Eldee Foundation was founded several years earlier by the late Lady Henrietta Davis, widow of the philanthropist Sir Mortimer B. Davis, a major supporter of the JGH.
 

The Directors of the JGH Foundation recognized the need to accelerate the pace of medical research in an increasingly complex era of high-technology medicine. In collaboration with the Eldee Foundation, they offered to provide the financial resources necessary for the construction and establishment of a modern, fully-equipped facility that would enable the JGH to significantly expand its existing medical research program. The Board of Directors of the JGH enthusiastically accepted the proposal, and the project quickly accelerated. Groundbreaking ceremonies were held in an empty lot on the corner of Cote Ste. Catherine Road and Légaré Street on April 16, 1968. The LDI was open and operating just over a year later.