The FRANCES PAYNE BOLTON SCHOOL OF NURSING at CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY was established in 1923 through a $500,000 endowment from FRANCES PAYNE BOLTON. The gift shifted the Lakeside Hospital Training School for Nurses from a hospital-based program to a university institution and provided the financial foundation for its growth.
In the following decades, the school expanded its curriculum beyond bedside training, adding university-level coursework in public health, administration, and clinical practice. It created one of the nation’s earliest graduate programs in nursing in 1934 and later developed doctoral training. Close collaboration with major Cleveland hospitals strengthened both clinical instruction and community health initiatives.
After the 1967 federation that formed Case Western Reserve University, the school broadened its research and professional programs. In 2019, the school relocated to the Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion on the university’s Health Education Campus.
Today, the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing offers undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral education and remains a central component of the university’s health sciences division.