University Hospital opened as Hôtel-Dieu (French for House of God) in 1859 and was operated by the Daughters of Charity. In 1913, it was the first hospital in the United States to have air conditioning in its surgical suites, and it was the site of milestone medical research that developed sulfonamide drug treatment for meningitis in the 1940s. The hospital developed a relationship with LSU Health Sciences Center in the 1970s and 1980s. It was purchased by the Louisiana State University System in 1991, renamed and converted into a teaching hospital for the adjacent medical school, which it also oversaw.