Commemorating the men of the Transvaal who died in World War I, the hospital was designed by Cowin, Powers & Ellis and opened in 1923. Funding for the building and equipment was raised by the National Council of Women. For more than fifty years it served the University of the Witwatersrand as the paediatric teaching hospital. The two bambini roundels are Florentine (AD 1420) and are the universal symbol of child care. Now operated as the CMI, housing a variety of organisations, it remains true to the original purpose of service to children.