About Us

Kay Jay's Doll Hospital along with Kay Jay's Doll Shoppe itself has resided in the shore town of Ocean City for over 25 years. Our experience with dolls, however, goes back much farther than that.

How about a little history? It all began five generations ago when Milton Hershey Emmert (relative to Milton Hershey the chocolate man) opened a toy store in West Philadelphia in the 1900s. The Doll Hospital was opened a generation later in his son's greeting card store in Center City Philadelphia around 1940. Then in 1985, Kay Jay's Doll Shoppe was brought to life by Kay Jay Nichols and her daughter Katy, my mother and grandmother. Though we've "shop hopped" through the city for years we've finally settled in downtown on Asbury Avenue.

We are all deeply saddened by the loss of our most beloved Kay Jay, Chief Doll Doctor at Kay Jay's Doll Shoppe. But her legacy lives on through us.

My name is Rachael Himes, the new Chief Doll Doctor. My grandmother has trained me and my mother as much as she could in the hopes that someone would carry on, helping dollies in need. In an interview with the press, she once said "We can't keep up with the repairs. That part of it will die with me." It is my intention to prove her wrong.

We are currently in the process of renovating our repair space but we're ready and waiting to help your injured dollies!