In 1907, Reverend J. W. Atwood founded "St. Luke's Home" a tuberculosis sanatorium. The home housed twenty patients in second-hand tent houses. Most of the doctors who attended the patients were volunteers. The town's businessmen, who offered their money and business expertise, became the first Board of Trustees.

At the request of Reverend Atwood, sixteen women from the Phoenix community and Trinity Episcopal Mission wrote letters for patients and cheered even the most ill by bringing lemonade and cookies to their bedsides. These women who did what they could to improve the conditions at St. Luke's Home were the charter members of The Board of Friendly Visitors. At some time, soon after its founding, the organization's name was changed to The Board of Visitors.

The fundraising activities of The Board of Visitors began in 1915 when the membership held the first charity ball to benefit St. Luke's Home. The early charity balls, held at the Phoenix Woman's Club, were family affairs with dancing downstairs, card playing upstairs and supper in the lobby. The buffet consisted of chicken salad made by the members. A string quartet provided music for dancing with the hesitation waltz being a favorite. The Grand March was lead by the Governor of Arizona and The Board of Visitors' Ball Chairman. The first ball raised $402.71 for St. Luke's Home.

Decorations for the charity balls were simple, elegant designs created by the membership. The time spent in creation of ball decorations contributed to the closeness of the membership.

In 1937, in an attempt to raise additional funds for St. Luke's Home, young ladies from the Phoenix community were invited to sell flowers at the annual charity ball. These young ladies, "Flower Girls" wore whatever "party dress" they had on hand. It was not until 1955 that the white dresses made their appearance and high school seniors were invited to become Flower Girls and were presented to ball attendees as St. Luke's Flower Girls.

In 1954, the first "Irene Fashion Show" was held. Irene, "the designer" of the 1950s presented the show at the Phoenix Country Club. Tea was served. 836 tickets were sold and $2,414.00 was donated to St. Luke's Hospital. During the 1950s the designers came and personally presented their shows. Helen Rose, Nolan Miller and Victor Costa presented their fashions at this St. Luke's Board of Visitors' annual event. The Associate Members coordinated the event with help of the Active Members.

The first St. Luke's Junior Charity Ball was held in 1956 in the Thunderbird Room of The Hotel Westward Ho. Ticket price was $1.00. This popular fundraiser for Valley teens shared decorations with The Charity Ball, which was held on the evening following the Junior Ball.

The Board of Visitors offered moral support to the patients of St. Luke's and provided monetary support to the Home for its 87 year existence as a non-profit medical facility. What began as an organization to assist the tubercular patients of St. Luke's Home evolved into a major fund raising artery of the hospital as St. Luke's grew and morphed into St. Luke's Home for Consumptives, St. Luke's Sanatorium, St. Luke's Hospital and St. Luke's Medical Center. In 1981, after the membership raised $1 million for its construction, The Behavioral Health Center at St. Luke's Medical Center was dedicated and named The St. Luke's Board of Visitors' Behavioral Health Center.

In 1995, with the sale of St. Luke's Medical Center, the membership of St. Luke's Board of Visitors voted to continue its 501(c)(3) status and dropped St. Luke's from its name, thus returning to its original name. The "new" Board of Visitors chose "serving the health care needs of women, children and the elderly" as its mission and created a grants committee to distribute the funds raised at the Fashion Show, Charity Ball and Junior Charity Ball to those non-profit organizations that mirrored its mission. In 2000, Care Card was added to The Board of Visitors' fundraisers and in 2004, The Junior Charity Ball was removed.

From sixteen charter members The Board of Visitors has grown into an organization of 50 Active and 130 Associate members, who although they no longer visit hospital patients and operate a hospital gift shop, raise over $750,000 annually to serve the health care needs of women, children and the elderly in the greater metropolitan Phoenix area. Since 1995, The Board of Visitors has granted over $7,000,000 to non-profit organizations that share its mission.

The heart of any organization is its membership and The Board of Visitors is truly an outstanding group. In addition to being dedicated to the mission to serve the health care needs of the community, Board of Visitors' members have been selected as "Woman of the Year", served in city and state government, founded other nonprofits in the city of Phoenix, and given thousands upon thousands of volunteer hours to make our community a better place to live. One constant in the membership of The Board of Visitors is loyalty and dedication of its members...tradition, continuity and caring.