Go to the map of maternity homes to see location (K).
28A Linwood Ave, Mt Albert.
The Auckland St Helen’s Hospital was located in Linwood Ave, Mt Albert, where the AIS Campus is today. Its official opening was 15 February 1968 (according to the ADHB History of National Women’s Hospital – Wikipedia cites Dow and says October. This needs to be verified) with 52 beds. It was under the control of the Auckland Hospital Board.
This was the second location for the Auckland St Helens Hospital, which opened in 1906 in Pitt St in the central city. Planning for the new four storey hospital began in 1958.
In 1978 St Helens in Mt Albert had 64 beds.
Its School of Midwifery closed in 1979, having trained 1445 midwives (ADHB, p.14).
There was considerable opposition to the closure of St Helen’s Hospital, and a vigorous “Save St Helen’s” campaign was conducted.
St Helen’s Hospital closed on 12 June 1990, the last of the 7 St Helen’s Hospitals to be closed. Services were relocated to National Women’s Hospital in Greenlane. MAHS has been contacted by Kahu Te Amo, who was the last woman to give birth at St Helens before the move. Her daughter was born on 13 June 1990, and they were later transferred to Greenlane Hospital.
When it closed, more than 105,500 mothers had given birth there.
In 1993, the private tertiary provider Auckland Institute of Studies (AIS) took over the campus.
Requesting your medical files from St Helens Hospital
Medical files for patients of St Helens were transferred to the Auckland District Health Board when they hospital closed. Your files can be requested through ADHB Te Whatu Ora Te Toka Tumai Auckland. Please click this link to go to their website: How Do I Request Medical Records
Three matrons ran this hospital while it was in Mt Albert:
Joan Coles (who had been Matron at Pitt St)
Win Perkinson
Ann Nightingale
In 1989 Miles Hargest took a large number of photographs of the staff, patients and buildings of St Helen’s Hospital in Mt Albert as part of the 1990 project. These are available online via Auckland Libraries’ Kura service.
Read more about St Helen’s Hospital online
Auckland District Health Board. (n.d.). A history of National Women’s Hospital.
Dow, Derek A. & Auckland Hospital Board. (2005). Auckland’s hospitals: A pictorial history 1847-2004. ADHB.
Gibson, Ann. (2002, 18 March). Apartments to replace old St Helen’s Hospital. New Zealand Herald.
McLean, Hester. (1932). Nursing in New Zealand : History and reminiscences. Tolan Printing Co.