The Ladies' Aid Association was begun in 1869, shortly before Children's Hospital opened, at the suggestion of the hospital's managers. It provided articles such as sheets, pillowcases, blankets, towels, tablecloths, children's clothing, toys, and books to the hospital.

As Children's Hospital grew, there was an increasing need for non-acute, long-term convalescent care. Responding to this need the Ladies' Aid Association rented and ran a home in Weston in 1874. A year later, they rented a house in Wellesley and established the Convalescent Home in Wellesley. The Ladies' Aid Association purchased a house in 1877 and made the necessary improvements upon it in the following years. The home was open from May through October

In 1890 H.H. Hunnewell donated 34 acres of land in Wellesley and a larger home was built. The new building was opened in 1892, and in 1894 it remained open all year for the first time.

On January 20, 1903 a fire destroyed the home without injury to anyone. The managers of the Convalescent Home rented a much smaller house until a new facility could be built. The new home opened in 1905 and was equipped with open-air shacks, which were believed to be the best treatment for patients with tuberculosis. Twenty years later, it was felt that sunlight was a better treatment, and Mary Weld, one of the home's managers donated funds to construct a solarium in memory of her father. The building was completed in 1926.

In 1885 the Ladies' Aid Association became the Convalescent Home of the Children's Hospital. In 1944 it changed its name to the Convalescent Home for Children, and finally, in 1948, to the Hospital and Convalescent Home for Children. This organization was always financially independent from the Children's Hospital and administered entirely by the women who were its members.

In the late 1940's the Convalescent Home was brought under the management of The Children's Medical Center. Use of the home changed reflecting the decreasing need for long-term convalescent care due in part to the success of antibiotics. The facility now had a small convalescent unit, a nursery school for cerebral palsy patients, and the Mary MacArthur Respirator Unit, which opened in 1950.

The Ladies' Aid Association and the Managers of the Convalescent Home served Children's needs for a convalescent facility. Another volunteer group of women, some serving in both groups, formed the Welfare Committee, in 1920, in an effort to make the needs of the hospital and convalescent home known to the broader community and provide them with donations of supplies and funds. In 1947 the Welfare Committee was "joined by representatives of the Convalescent Home" (Annual Report 1947) and in 1949 the Welfare Committee changed its name to the Women's Committee in an effort to include representatives from "affiliating agencies" of The Children's Medical Center (Annual Report 1949).

By 1958 the Convalescent Home no longer served the needs of the hospital and was closed. The property was sold to Babson Institute (now Babson College). In 1967 the Hospital and Convalescent Home for Children was incorporated into The Children's Hospital Medical Center.

For further historical information see: Lendon Snedeker, M.D., One Hundred Years at Children's, Clement A. Smith, M.D., The Children's Hospital of Boston: "Built Better Than They Knew". Within the records of the Ladies Aid Association see particularly the histories in box 5, folders 68, 69, and 70.