The Texas Medical Center was established in 1945 through the generous philanthropy of businessman Monroe Dunaway Anderson. Anderson believed that a medical center that consisted of many different hospitals, academic and research institutions and support organizations should be built in Houston, next to Hermann Hospital. Anderson founded the M.D. Anderson Foundation prior to the charter of the medical center with an endowment of $300,000. The fund's first gift was a check of $1,000 to the Junior League Eye Fund for eyeglasses. Two years after establishing the M.D. Anderson Foundation, Anderson died, leaving $19 million to the organization, the largest charitable fund ever created in Texas. In 1941, the Texas state legislature granted funds to the University of Texas for the purpose of starting a cancer research hospital.
President Roosevelt approved the purchase of 118 acres from the Hermann Estate in 1944 for the construction of a 1,000-bed naval hospital in Houston. The hospital, later renamed the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, opened in 1946 and became a teaching facility for the Baylor College of Medicine. Also in 1946, several projects were approved for inclusion in the Texas Medical Center including: Hermann Hospital, St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, The Methodist Hospital, The Shriners Crippled Children's' Hospital, and the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library. The M.D. Anderson Hospital for Cancer Research of the University of Texas began construction in 1953. Texas Children's Hospital admitted its first patient in 1954.