THE FOOTPRINTS
2003

In the fall of 2002, St. Francis Medical Center, in the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh, was sold to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Health System. A new Children's Hospital has replaced the 137 year-old St. Francis facility, founded and owned by The Sisters of St. Francis of Millvale.

Due to the sale of the St. Francis Medical Center, the School of Nursing was closed immediately - and forever. After more than 100 years of educating excellent nurses, among the best in the country, there will be no more. Without a chance for many to say good-bye, the school and hospital were suddenly GONE.

After the closing, a search of the Internet yielded only broken links to the former St. Francis hospital and school.... almost like they disappeared, without even leaving a footprint...

Many of the graduates of the school of nursing are deceased, and the rest are scattered far and wide. But they are the legacy... the FOOTPRINTS of Pittsburgh's St. Francis Hospital School of Nursing.

This website attempts to memorialize the graduates, primarily those who are deceased. The graduates were more than names in a list, and research has yielded some very interesting - and often tragic - family histories.