The Wiesbaden Eye Hospital was opened on January 1, 1856 with one room with three beds each for men and women as well as a treatment room at Kirchgasse 7. The private initiative of ophthalmologist Friedrich Hermann Alexander Pagenstecher was intended to provide help for all eye patients and blind people. Poor and destitute patients were to be treated free of charge. This charitable project could be realized thanks to the support of the ducal Nassau government and numerous donations from wealthy citizens.

As the demand was unexpectedly high in the first few months, the financial situation was improved following an appeal for donations throughout the Duchy of Nassau. In addition to the doctor, who took care of the medical needs, a maid and an attendant looked after the patients. The food was provided by a municipal dining establishment. As the cramped premises soon no longer had room for the many people seeking help from all over the duchy, the clinic moved into the founder's newly built private house at Taunusstrasse 59 in the spring of 1857, which he shared with his younger brother Hermann Pagenstecher. This expansion increased the number of beds to ten. Due to the good reputation of the eye clinic and its director, Duke Adolf von Nassau appointed Alexander Pagenstecher as a court councillor.

The successful work led to international recognition. Patients soon came from different countries. In order to meet this new challenge, a total of twenty beds in six rooms were set up for inpatient treatment by 1859. Four places alone were reserved for children. When even these rooms could no longer meet the increased requirements, a building was acquired at Kapellenstraße 20 (now 29) in 1861 with financial assistance from the Duke and converted into a new eye clinic. There was now room for 33 patients in twelve rooms. The spacious rooms allowed for orderly housekeeping and also provided sufficient space for the staff. Two assistant doctors now supported Alexander Pagenstecher in his work. Between 1862 and 1865, more than 6,000 patients were treated free of charge in the eye clinic for the poor. In the same period, around 4,000 poor people from several countries paid for their treatment. Among the notable personalities who visited the institution over the years were Grand Duchess Helene of Russia in 1863, Princess Marianne of the Netherlands, Adelheid Marie Duchess of Nassau and Princess Elisabeth of Wied.

Due to Nassau's military conflict with Prussia, the number of treatments fell slightly in the mid-1860s. However, after Nassau was annexed by Prussia in 1866, the eye clinic was expanded and from 1868 the facility had 40 beds. After this expansion could no longer meet the needs of the burgeoning town, the clinic was relocated to Kapellenstraße 42. The director of the Schirm trade school exchanged this large plot of land with the Villa Astheimer, built in 1843, for the Pagenstecher brothers' building.

By 1870, the new eye clinic had been rebuilt and extended so that it could accommodate all patients. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, parts of the premises were used as a military hospital. After peace had returned, Alexander Pagenstecher's brother Herrmann joined the medical work and initially supported him as an assistant doctor. After completing his training, a private eye clinic was set up, whose patients paid their own expenses. At the end of the 1870s, further conversion and renovation work became necessary. This restructuring was the first major project that Hermann Pagenstecher had to take on as the new head of the clinic after the tragic death of his brother Alexander in a hunting accident. Hermann continued his brother's successful work.

At the turn of the century, it became apparent that the eye clinic could not meet the demands of the increasing number of patients at its former location. Between 1905 and 1906, a new building was erected on the same site according to Hermann Pagenstecher's plans. At the inauguration in March 1906, the head physician was appointed Privy Medical Councillor. Two years later, the hospital received a great honor when Empress Auguste Viktoria visited.

Hermann Pagenstecher's retirement in 1909 had no effect on the success of the clinic. His son Adolf Friedrich Hermann Pagenstecher took over the management, so that the eye clinic remained in family ownership. During the First World War, the clinic again served as a military hospital, where the number of beds was increased from 90 to 175. During the subsequent economic crisis, the facility suffered from supply problems and dwindling donations. Due to the general emergency situation and the fact that the occupation of the Rhineland made it difficult for patients from outside the region to travel to the hospital, the number of patients treated fell drastically. In the 1920s, the eye clinic struggled to survive for a long time.

In 1927, Adolf Pagenstecher handed over the management to the senior physician Heinrich Göring, who had been working for him since 1904. The upswing of the 1930s also paid off for the clinic, until it once again had to function as a military hospital during the Second World War. The building was also hit by bombs in the final days of the war in 1945. As a result, the top floor was completely burnt out and the third floor was badly damaged. The farm buildings and the administration were also affected. As the currency reform had almost halved the financial reserves, money had to be borrowed to repair the bomb damage. To cover the costs, some rooms were given to other doctors. For a time, there was an obstetrics ward in the clinic.

In 1947, Göring retired and transferred the management to Professor Elborg, who handed over the position to Professor Friedrich Wagner in 1953 after six years of service. Both were committed to the charitable aims of the eye clinic in the spirit of the Pagenstecher brothers. Wagner retired in 1976. He was replaced by Professor Walter Lerche, who took over responsibility for the necessary modernization.

In 1981, the eye clinic celebrated its 125th anniversary. In the anniversary year, the end of the social institution was decided at the same time. The clinic became part of the new municipal Dr. Horst Schmidt Clinic on Freudenberg, which opened in 1982. The city took over both the debts and the assets of the dissolved foundation.

The Bad Dürkheim clinic entrepreneur Rolf-Henning Mayer, a renowned expert, took over the conversion of the eye clinic into a nursing home. After investments of around 4.5 million German marks, the Kapellenstift senior citizens' center was opened on December 15, 1984. After extensive modernization in 2001, the building of the former eye clinic is now home to 121 residents as a retirement and nursing home run by the Berlin retirement home and clinic operator Maternus.