Fisher House Boston’s mission is to provide a home away from home where military families can stay, free of charge, while a loved one is receiving in-house treatment at any of our world-renowned medical centers in Boston. We work tirelessly to raise awareness in our community about this critical need of our military families.
By helping you in a time of need, the Fisher House Boston Program is fulfilling Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher’s dream. This is our way of saluting members of the armed services, veterans and their families. We understand you may be going through a difficult time, and hope that the Fisher House Boston will be able to provide you with safe and comfortable lodging while you support your loved one. That is precisely what the Fisher House of Boston and the Fisher House Foundation hope to accomplish by extending this service.
Fisher House Boston was the 46th house to be built and dedicated. Boston is the 15th house to be on a VA Medical Center campus. The Fisher House of Boston hotel/housing program for our Boston hospitals was established in 2014, the first of its kind!”
The first two Fisher Houses, designed and built by the Fishers, opened in 1991 – at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland and Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC. A year later, the Air Force received its first Fisher House – at Wilford Hall Medical Center at the Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.
By 1993, the network had expanded to 12 houses, and Fisher House Foundation, Inc. was established as the national not-for-profit organization to coordinate private support and encourage public support for the program. In 1994, the program expanded to the Department of Veterans Affairs, with the first Fisher House for Veterans opening in Albany, New York.
From 1990 through 1998, all Fisher Houses were given as gifts to the U.S. Government by the Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher Armed Services Foundation. In 1999, the Fisher House Foundation began to build new Fisher Houses.
Fisher House Founder and Chairman, Zachary Fisher, passed away on June 4, 1999. At the time of Zachary’s death, there were 26 Fisher Houses.
In mid 2000, the program began its 11th year, and had provided more than one million days of lodging to eligible families. In 2001, the first Fisher House built in partnership with another organization, the Veterans Guest House, opened at the Cincinnati VA Medical Center, and the first Fisher House built outside the U.S was formally dedicated in Landstuhl, Germany.
There are currently 91 Fisher Houses located around the country and in the UK.
The phenomenal growth of Fisher Houses and the unprecedented support received is testimony to the foresight of founders Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher and the commitment of Zachary’s family to continue his legacy. The houses truly are “dedicated to our greatest national treasure… our military service men and women and their loved ones.”
