Children's Mercy Hospital was founded in 1897 when two sisters, Dr. Katharine Berry Richardson, a surgeon, and Dr. Alice Berry Graham, a dentist, found a crippled, malnourished girl abandoned in the streets of Kansas City. They took her in, rented a bed in a local hospital and a legacy of caring for children began.

The bed soon became known as the "Mercy Bed," and the need for health care for children continued to grow. By 1907, the Berry sisters moved into their own building and called it Children's Mercy Hospital. In 1916, Children's Mercy moved to Independence Avenue (now the home of the University for Health Sciences) and flourished there until 1970, when the hospital moved to its current location on Hospital Hill.

In the mid-1940's, Children's Mercy hired its first full-time medical director, Dr. Wayne Hart, who began the hospital's pediatric teaching program. A few of the first residents at Children's Mercy are still practicing pediatricians in Kansas City today. Over the years, Children's Mercy has enjoyed tremendous support from the community from spelling bee's in the early 1900s to the recent $70 million capital campaign.