At the end of World War I, the city of Reims, located in the region of Champagne-Ardennes north-east of Paris, lay in ruins, after a prolonged bombing campaign of which Reims was the sole target for over three years. Its magnificent cathedral was badly damaged in the early months of the war, and by 1918, an estimated 80 percent of the city was destroyed.

Reims became known as the “martyr city” in France and beyond, thanks in part to a concerted campaign by the French government, aimed particularly at the United States. Reims’ tragic fate played a role in convincing the US government to join WWI on the side of France and its allies in 1917.

At the end of the war, a group of American women who had been active throughout the war as part of the American Fund for the French Wounded (AFFW), led by Isabel Lathrop, set out to found a hospital for the Children of Reims as a parting gift to France, in memory of American soldiers killed during the war.

In July 1919, the American Memorial Hospital foundation (AMH Inc.) was established, incorporated in the state of New York and headed by Edith Bangs, a Bostonian who had chaired the New England chapter of AFFW during the war. The newly founded “American committee” proved inspiring.

On May 21,1922, the cornerstone of the new American Memorial Hospital was laid at the Maison Blanche site donated by the City of Reims, with an American flag flying overhead, and the ruins of the Notre Dame Cathedral in the background. Speaking at the ceremony, then US Ambassador Myron Herrick said the founding of the hospital had a two-fold purpose: “the relief of human suffering and a practical way to show American sympathy and affection for France.”

That sympathy and affection became a reality as the new hospital was planned and built. American women from New England, New York, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and others states from east to west sent donations from American families, schools, various organizations, small towns and cities to pay for equipment, halls, rooms and offices and to endow 100 beds. Some of the tributes, preserved in decorative plaques scattered throughout the original building, are in honor of American soldiers killed in WWI; some are in the names of men who returned safely from the war; and some commemorate the founding women of the first free-standing pediatric hospital in France, built for the Children of Reims. The newly founded “American committee”, rallied and raised $300,000 for the construction of a new hospital, and a permanent endowment of $600,000 to provide for its operating costs. This initial endowment is the original and sole source of the foundation’s current $15M endowment. The American Memorial Hospital opened its doors on April 30, 1925, decorated with charming Art Deco frescoes of mothers and babies, birds and flowers, created by the Franco-American artist Robert Montagne Saint Hubert.

On April 30, 2025, the American Memorial Hospital will celebrate the original hospital’s 100 th anniversary together with representatives of the American Committee, the Reims-based Association of the Friends of AMH, known as “Les Amis”, and the administration of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Reims (CHU), which has administered the operation of the AMH since 1950’s. Today, all medical activities are carried out in a new modern hospital which opened its doors in 2016, erected next to the original art deco building.

The incorporation of the AMH into the CHU has allowed the US-based foundation to concentrate its efforts on contributions to the training of young doctors, including fellowships overseas in North America and medical education in general, as well as scientific research which have made the hospital a “first class institution with a reputation on a national level” as Adrienne Scheich, president of the AMH Inc., said in a speech in 2019, as the foundation celebrated its own Centennial.

Over the decades the American grants helped pay for an iron lung in 1947; a research wing in 1960; laboratories, a radiology service, and an obstetrics ward in 1965; and the construction of a Mother-Child Unit opened in 2002, to name just a few major projects.

In recent years, the distribution of grants has included a variety of categories including research, medical education, equipment, and social services to help patients and their families in need.

The foundation’s current mission is to continue to emphasize its support for centers of excellence. Today, as a result of continuous grants by the foundation, AMH has become a national referral center for Cystic fibrosis and has flourishing research teams in the fields of Neonatology and Nephrology. Also, the educational opportunities which the foundation has been supporting, both within the hospital as well as thru fellowships overseas, has made AMH a sought-after residency program in France.