Staff Amazed As Hospital Lures Over 8,000 Visitors

More t h a n 8,000 persons toured the University's new C. S. Mott Children's Hospital at an open house for the unique 212-bed facility yesterday, William Bender Jr., University Hospital public information officer, reported today. The U-M's 1,000-car East Medical Center parking structure was filled with cars of persons touring the new $9,500,000 hospital soon after the 1 p.m. opening hour of the open house. U-M officials then opened 10 acres of parking lot space to the visitors which also was filled before the 6 p.m. closing hour. Entire families from Detroit, Flint, Jackson, Lansing and other Michigan cities carne to see this most modern of children's hospitals which will take in its first patients next Monday. At one point, a caravan of wheelchairs and stretchers brought young patients from University Hospital pediatrics wards to see the new facility which many of them will occupy beginning nest week. The parade of children on stretchers, some of whom had glucose bottles dangling from overhead bars, lent emoüonally-charged meaning to the otherwise festive occasion. By careful rationing, 2,500 brochures printed fo.' distribution during the public open house lasted until about 4 p.m., but there were no copies left for late arrivals who came during the final two hours of the program. One amazed hospital administrator was reported as saying early in the afternoon, "I thought we would have a good turnout, but I never expected this many." Every floor of the eight-story building was jammed with visitors throughout the afternoon, Bender said. Some 200 hospital employés, including doctors and nurses, in addition to Volunteer Services Guild members in pink smocks, were on duty throughout the afternoon. Despite the fact that the hospital's five operation rooms containing equipment valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars were guarded only by flimsy crepe ribbons, the barriers were still intact at the day's end. Children attending the open house were drawn to the roof top play area with its colorful swings and riding-sized toy animals where patients will play and picnic in good weather when the facility is occupied. The hospital was built and equipped with an initial gift of $6,500,000 from the C. W. Mott Foundation of Flint, $2,100,000 in Hill-Burton funds from the federal government, $860,000 in funds from University Hospital, $300,000 from the U-M Medical School, and $298,000 in gifts from local organizations and individuals. Largest private gifts, in addition to the Mott Foundation grant, came from the Galens Honorary Medical Society, the Volunteers Services Guild, Kiwanis Clubs, Dr. and Mrs. Harry Towsley, Edna Morgan, the Clarence and Grace Chamberlain Foundation, the Ann Arbor High School student body, Ann Arbor Civitan Club, the King's Daughters, and Ann Arbor Zonta Club. The Michigan Legislature appropriated $63,000 in 1956 for preliminary planning of the new building.