A Long History of Christian Care...

In 1900, only 11 years after the Central Oklahoma Land Run, the Oklahoma Rescue Home was founded in Guthrie (then the state capital) by a group of Free Methodist women known as Deaconesses. They felt strongly called to minister to unwed mothers-to-be-, prostitutes and other women outcast by society. Soon thereafter, the Home relocated to Oklahoma City and purchased farmland north of the city. It grew rapidly adding a nursing school in 1923 – a year in which 123 babies were born in the facility and a medical clinic. By the end of World War II, the medical aspect of the Home had grown to the point that one building was set aside as a hospital facility and the Deaconess Hospital was officially established.


The Hospital expanded frequently in the following years. Today,  Deaconess Hospital and Deaconess at Bethany have a combined total of 313-beds serving the Oklahoma City community and much of the surrounding area. During that time, the Home continued to provide a wide range of pregnancy and adoption services throughout the state and beyond. This ministry continues today as Deaconess Pregnancy & Adoption Services.  

In 2005, the hospital board elected to sell the hospital, and the Butterfield Memorial Foundation was formed. The Foundation was named for Rev. Butterfield and his wife Gladys.   Rev. Butterfield was longtime hospital administrator, and Gladys had been superintendent of the Home. Both the Home (renamed Deaconess Pregnancy and Adoption Services) and a formerly hospital-run indigent care clinic (Open Arms Clinic) also became part of the new Foundation.

The Foundation and its allied ministries continue today as a mission affiliated with The Free Methodist Church of North America.