Mr. Frankel, an architect and engineer who had been deaf since birth, and Mrs. Frankel, who had a hearing loss, dedicated their lives to active community participation for the hearing impaired. Fundraising efforts began. Building space was donated by Temple Adath Israel and a teacher was hired. The Lexington Deaf Oral School opened with six students. For nine years the Temple housed the Lexington Deaf Oral School.

Successful fundraising efforts enabled the Board of Directors to purchase a house at 158 North Ashland Avenue in 1969. Due to continued growth, a brick addition was added to the back of that house with a multipurpose room on the first floor and classroom space on the second floor. This facility was dedicated in 1971. In 1978, the Board of Directors expanded programming to include additional audiological and speech/language pathology services for preschoolers and community clients. The name of the school was changed to the Lexington Hearing & Speech Center to better reflect the broader program.

The eighties led us to the acquisition of property on both sides of our first home. The Lexington Hearing & Speech Center property at 162 North Ashland Avenue was joined to our first house by a walk-through. In December 1985 the Center celebrated this expansion project and our 25th anniversary. The school portion (158 North Ashland Avenue) was named the Frankel Building. The adjoining building (162 North Ashland Avenue) now houses our administrative and speech/language therapy offices.

In the Spring of 1993 we grew again. The Board of Directors voted to establish day care services in the building located next door to the Frankel Building at 154 North Ashland Avenue. The Day Care Program, along with changes designed to update our preschool programming, have allowed us to bring children with normal speech and hearing development into our programming. These children serve as speech and language models and provide additional motivation to the other children to achieve their developmental milestones.

The Center looks forward to a future of continued dedication to excellence, as we follow the examples of our founders, Edie and Jimmy Frankel.