Pediatric Orthopedic Care in Texas
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The effort for pediatric orthopedic care in Dallas began when the Shriners (Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine) organized a board with the idea of creating a system of charity hospitals across the U.S. Samuel P. Cochran, chairman of the board, was interested in developing a locally managed service for children with orthopedic needs in Dallas. In 1921, a group of Masons approached Dallas’ first orthopedic surgeon, Dr. William B. Carrell, to help establish a clinic, particularly for children with polio. He opened the Hella Temple Free Clinic, which soon outgrew its capacity. Hella Temple purchased property on Welborn Street and opened Hella Temple Children’s Temple in 1923. Masons in Dallas and groups throughout Texas made donations to the hospital. A partnership developed between the Hella Temple Shriners and the Scottish Rite Masons, who purchased the hospital (1926) and renamed it Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Children. Dr. Carrell was chief of staff until his death in 1944 and was succeeded by his son, Dr. Brandon Carrell. By the 1950s, the hospital’s concentration broadened, allowing for treatment of more children. Departments developed and the hospital took the lead in fields, including learning disorders (particularly dyslexia); spinal disorders; congenital hand disorders; limb lengthening and reconstruction; pediatric orthopedic surgeon education; scoliosis treatment; and clubfoot research. The hospital has also worked with the community through education and humanitarian work. The hospital moved here in 1978 and in 1991, it took the name Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. Still led by Texas Masons and fully supported by donations, the facility continues to treat children with a wide range of medical conditions, free of charge. (2008)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Pediatric orthopedic care in Dallas grew from a 1921 effort by Masons who recruited the city's first orthopedic surgeon, Dr. William B. Carrell, to treat children—especially young polio patients—at the Hella Temple Free Clinic. The Scottish Rite Masons bought the growing hospital in 1926, and over the decades it pioneered work in dyslexia, scoliosis, clubfoot, limb reconstruction, and hand disorders. Renamed Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, it still treats children free of charge, supported entirely by donations.
Why it matters
It reflects the fraternal and charitable impulse that built much of America's early children's medicine, and a century-long commitment to treating kids regardless of a family's ability to pay.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
The early twentieth century was a hard time to be a sick or disabled child in America. Polio outbreaks swept through communities with terrifying regularity, leaving children with paralyzed limbs and families with few places to turn. Orthopedic care for the young was still a developing field, and specialized treatment was scarce — and for poor families, often out of reach entirely.
Into that gap stepped America's fraternal orders and charitable societies. Groups like the Masons and the Shriners built much of the era's private safety net, organizing hospitals and clinics where none existed and funding them through the giving of their members. It was a distinctly American answer to human need: neighbors banding together to build what government did not yet provide.
Dallas in the 1920s was a growing city ready for exactly that kind of institution. What began here as a single free clinic would grow, over a century, into one of the country's notable centers for children's orthopedic medicine.
People & events
The effort took shape when the Shriners organized a board with the idea of creating charity hospitals across the country. Its chairman, Samuel P. Cochran, was especially interested in building a locally managed service for children with orthopedic needs right in Dallas.
In 1921, a group of Masons approached Dr. William B. Carrell — Dallas's first orthopedic surgeon — to help establish a clinic, with special concern for children stricken by polio. He opened the Hella Temple Free Clinic, and it quickly outgrew its space. In 1923 the Hella Temple Shriners bought property and opened a dedicated children's facility, sustained by donations from Masons in Dallas and groups across Texas.
Then came a partnership that would define the institution's future: in 1926 the Scottish Rite Masons purchased the hospital and renamed it the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Children. Dr. Carrell served as chief of staff until his death in 1944, when his son, Dr. Brandon Carrell, took up the work — a father and son together giving decades to the care of children.
Its place in the American story
This hospital's history mirrors the way much of America's early children's medicine was built: not by the state, but by fraternal and charitable organizations pooling their resources to care for kids whose families could not pay. It's a powerful example of private generosity meeting a public need in an age before broad medical safety nets.
The institution also grew into a genuine center of advancement. Over the decades its focus broadened well beyond polio, and it took a leading role in fields including scoliosis and other spinal disorders, clubfoot research, limb lengthening and reconstruction, congenital hand disorders, learning disorders such as dyslexia, and the training of pediatric orthopedic surgeons. Care and discovery grew up side by side.
Most striking is what has not changed. Renamed the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, and still led by Texas Masons and supported entirely by donations, the facility continues to treat children free of charge. A century-long promise — that a child's care should not depend on a family's means — is a story worth telling in full.
If you visit
This is a landmark about an idea as much as a place: the conviction that no child should be turned away for lack of money, kept alive across a hundred years. Standing here, it's worth remembering that the institution moved to this site in the late 1970s, the latest chapter in a story that began with a single free clinic downtown.
Let the marker prompt you to think in generations. A father who was the city's first orthopedic surgeon, a son who followed him, and countless families helped along the way — this is history measured in careers given and children healed, not in battles or elections.
If you're exploring Dallas beyond its better-known attractions, a stop like this offers a quieter, more human thread of the city's story. It connects the fraternal traditions of the early twentieth century to a still-working commitment to children's health — a reminder that some of the most enduring history is the kind that is still being written.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Dr. William B. Carrell
- · Dr. Brandon Carrell
- · Samuel P. Cochran
Themes & tags
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