It all began with Miss Lillian Nichols, a parish nurse attached to St. Bernards Episcopal Church. She started to attend to the sick and poor in 1903. In 1904, a committee was formed to direct the nurse and be responsible for her services to the community of Somerset Hills consisting of the towns of Bernardsville, Basking Ridge, Gladstone, Mendham Borough, and Chester Borough, to name a few. This event heralded the beginning of the Visiting Nurse Association, one of the first 100 such organizations in the United States.

The following is a synopsis of the wonderful history and the many milestones of the VNA of Somerset Hills:

1906
The founding committee is incorporated as the Visiting Nurse Association and moves into a home constructed by the friends of the Association on Olcott Avenue in Bernardsville. 

1910
VNA begins school programs on hygiene and preventative health measures that continue today. 

1920
Dental and eye clinic join VNA tonsil clinics. Nurses earn $80 per month with one month vacation. Hours are 8:00 am to 6:00 pm daily except Sunday. 

1933
Depression causes social work of VNA to increase. Dispensing milk, cod liver oil and coal to combat want and undernourishment. 708 patients visited; up six-fold in one year. 

1937
New VNA Constitution and By-laws increase Board of Trustees to 40 members, representing five districts served. House-to-house drive raises $10,000. First rummage sales are held. 

1953
Nurses travel 35,422 miles to make 11,166 visits. 

1970
A year of immunization for the VNA: an effort to eradicate Rubella or German measles through immunization of 4,435 children. Diabetes screening begins. 

1984
Hospice program, the care of the terminally ill at home, is initiated by the VNA. 

1988
Somerset Hills Adult Day Care Center opens, a VNA affiliate that offers a social day care program to the elderly and disabled. 

1993
The Association offers an inexpensive influenza vaccine program to its communities. Twenty new staff members are added. 

2002
Somerset Hills Adult Day Center becomes part of the VNA Healing Family. 

2004
VNA celebrates 100 years of community service.

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