Marcia in a Mask

As you may know, Marcia Noyes worked for MedChi for 50 years, from 1896 when she arrived as the librarian hired by Dr. William Osler, until her retirement and death shortly thereafter in 1946. 

By the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918, she had been here for more than 20 years and was ensconced in the offices on Cathedral Street. With all of the physicians who surrounded her, I know that they cared greatly about her health. 

Of course, we care about your health, and hope that you're wearing your mask when it's appropriate.

Our 1909 Building and Ellicott & Emmart

Last week, I posted on the 111th Anniversary of our building and also put it on Facebook. A friend, who is really a historical genius, sent me a link to an old Brickbuilder journal from 1912. 

Brickbuilder was a journal that covered the building trades, including architecture, originally focusing on "architecture in materials of clay". It was founded in Boston in 1892, and merged with Architectural Forum in 1919. But old copies can still be found at the Hathi Trust's digital library and at Archive.org. 

There was so much building going on in Baltimore in the early 1900's, primarily because of the Great Baltimore Fire in 1904, but also because of the inner suburbs, like Roland Park, Guilford and Homeland, being built. (This is the home of Dr. Mason Knox, a member of the Faculty.)

Our building dates to 1909, and was featured in the 1912 issue of Brickbuilder, along with another project by Ellicott & Emmart, who designed our building. 

Here is what I found. 

Faculty Building & Blueprints

There was some other random picture here, so I added one of the details of our building.

Laboratory? Who knew? And I am guessing that Marcia's maid's rooms were where the elevator shaft and mechanicals, and the "junk" room are now. 

Another building by Ellicott & Emmart which was built at the same time, and featured in the same 1912 Brickbuilder, was the Forest Park Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library. 

There is a lot of decorative brickwork on the Library building, including around the roof-line and along the eaves. 

The monk bond, which is two stretchers between each header on each course, used on this building, is similar to the Faculty building. The monk bond creates a very vertical look. 

It was such fun to discover another Ellicott & Emmart building. If you are interested in old buildings, Google "Brickbuilder" and you'll find a treasure trove of fascinating buildings.

Dr. Harry Knipp Recollects... Part II

As long-time MedChi member, Dr. Harry Knipp was doing a Covid clear-out, he discovered some old pictures of the University of Maryland. He was kind enough to let me share his thoughts and his photos. 

A page from a fundraising booklet for the brand new Art Deco 1934 University Hospital. The corner in the foreground is Redwood and Greene Streets. (Credit UMB Digital Archive)

My photo from August 1974 from the 13th floor turret of University Hospital, looking east, sort of down Redwood Street. The construction crane, I believe, is working on 100 E. Pratt, the once IBM building. The parking lot below was not converted to the park and underground garage for another 2-3 years and the Social Work School addition at Redwood and Paca has not yet been built, nor has the Merritt/Schaefer Tower, or the Redwood Apartments next to the Bromo Tower.

My August 1974 photo from the 13th floor of the old University Hospital looking Southeast toward the harbor. The rotating LaRonde restaurant atop the Holiday Inn is visible and was still functioning then. The dome of historic 1812 Davidge Hall is seen on the lower right, and the buildings on the south side of Lombard Street are still there, once a campus book store and also an old pharmaceutical company.

My photo looking south from our 13th floor University Hospital Infection Control office in August 1974. the BG&E natural gas storage tanks are easily seen.

Looking west in August 1974 in my photo from our 13th floor office in the turret-like top of the old University Hospital. The B&O Roundhouse is easily seen and the edge of light colored original University Garage is seen, hidden by the brick Psychiatric Institute. In those days, the Shock Trauma heliport was on the roof of that garage, and patients had to be ambulanced round and round down through the garage and into the basement entrance of the old hospital to get to the 4th floor Shock Trauma unit. The new S-T building with heliport on top would completely block this view today, and the old garage was torn down and replaced with a med school lab and teaching building.

Yours truly as a med student in our 13th floor Infection Control offices. It was a great summer gig for a young guy, as I got to visit every nurses station in the hospital, every day, keeping track of all patients on antibiotics and/or with infections. Met lots of nice ladies and I even dated a few of them until a year or two later when I met my wife of 44 years now, curiously while she was working in the Bacteriology lab at Mercy Hospital. It must be something about those germs. Little did the young man in this shot know that he would one day serve on the board of the medical school, and even more astounding, chair the board of the campus wide foundation which oversees all donations to the 7 UMB schools and is the advisory board for the campus president. Even better, his own son would get an M.D. here, too, our 5th generation in a row to attend the med school.

The first University Hospital on the SW corner of Lombard and Greene Streets. I had a chest x-ray taken here when I started med school in 1972 as it housed all of the hospital's outpatient clinics after the 1934 hospital was built up the street. My great grandfather and grandfather were both medical staff members in this building. It was torn down in 1972-3. (Lombard goes to the right on the shot, and Greene to the left.)

From a postcard in my personal collection, the new Deco 1934 University Hospital at 22 S. Greene Street. Note that at this point, the wings only go to the 10th floor. In the bottom right of the picture is the ramp from Greene Street down to the basement level Emergency Room, which in later years, we affectionately called "The Pit" My father trained here when he was in med school 1947-51.

Another postcard from my collection, now showing the additional two floors added to each of the four wings of the cross-shaped 1934 University Hospital. We're looking from the corner of Redwood and Greene Streets.

This is a shot from my father's 1951 med school yearbook, Terra Marie Medicus, showing the various buildings of the UMB campus at the time. The cross shape of the 1934 hospital is clearly seen here. My photos were taken from the four corners of the turret like top structure. Number 12 in the pic is the original University Hospital, used as the outpatient clinic building from 1934-1972. The Psychiatric Institute added to the west wing of the 1934 hospital in 1951 is not yet visible in this aerial shot. Number 1 is historic Davidge Hall. Number 2, the Lab Building was the original dental school building which then moved across the street to Number 10 in the photo. In 1972 it moved to a new building on Baltimore Street, and then a few years ago to an even newer tower on Baltimore Street. The 1972 dental building was razed and the new Med School research tower has been built on that site, the largest building in the entire University System of Maryland.

A postcard view of the hospital as it was just before the north addition was finished in 1972. This is looking north west at the rear of the building from the corner of Lombard and Penn Streets. The building with the beige top on the left of the pic is the 1951 Psychiatric Institute addition to the west wing of the 1934 hospital. My photos were taken from the windows of the turret-like top of the hospital, seen well here. Aside from the new North Hospital addition, this was how this part of the campus looked during my years in school and training there, 1972-1981.

Here's a current view of the 1934 hospital with its 1972 North Hospital addition that blocks Redwood Street between Penn and Greene Streets. The park in the foreground and the underlying parking garage were constructed on the site of an old surface lot beginning in 1981. I watched them work on it from the 7th floor surgical locker room in the front of the north tower.

The Baltimore VA Medical Center, now occupies the block formed by Baltimore, Greene, and Fayette Streets and is connected to the North wing of University Hospital by a bridge as you can see here. In my business of radiology, the VA here is famous as it had the very first all filmless radiology department in the world. On the right of the shot is the edge of the new UM Carey School of Law building replacing the law school building that was there when I was in training. During my time on campus as a student and resident, the VA site was occupied by a faculty parking garage and a large surface lot. Parking on campus was so limited that that lot used bumper to bumper stadium style parking, with areas departing at specified times of the afternoon. You better be out there to move your car on time, or you were in hot water!

Courtesy of Dr Rick Taylor, this 1982 postcard of UMB shows the then 30 acre campus and hospital as it was then. Note the ongoing construction of the MLK on the left of the shot. You can also see the red cross of the former Shock-Trauma heliport atop the old University Garage. On the bottom left is the then new Pratt garage with gymnasium on the roof, and you can see the grassy former site of the original University Hospital at Lombard and Greene Streets with the adjacent sort of V-shaped student union/dorm building. Original plans were for it to be K-shaped after the old hospital was razed, but they developed more important plans for the site as you'll see. Davidge Hall is visible in the lower mid pic. The new Social Security metro complex is seen at top left center, now a vacant hulk - your tax dollars at work. The beige Carter Center building on Fayette seen here has now been torn down.

Here's a current view of University of Maryland Medical Center, the modern name for the hospital complex. The new Gudelsky Tower and entrance at Lombard and Greene is shown here and houses the state-of-the-art Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center. This is how the hospital looked during my son's medical school years, and faithful Davidge Hall, where the entire University of Maryland began, is still there and still in use.

A UMB stock photo of the beautiful Health Sciences and Human Services Library and adjacent Southern Management Student Center, complete with gym and pool, now occupying the site of the original University Hospital on the SW corner of Lombard and Greene Streets.

A current aerial view on the now nearly 75-acre University of Maryland, Baltimore campus and BioPark, looking from the southwest. The university is home to the schools of Medicine, Law, Dentistry, Pharmacy. Nursing, and Social Work, as well as a multi-disciplinary Graduate School. Also on campus are the State Medical Examiner's Office, the UMB Community Engagement Center, The Institute of Genome Sciences, The Institute of Human Virology, The Maryland Proton Treatment Center and more. And the campus and BioPark continue to grow, currently extending from Eutaw Street on the east, to beyond Poppleton Street on the west, and from Saratoga Street on the north to Pratt Street and below on the south.
(Photo courtesy of the UMBioPark)

Dr. Knipp was born and raised in Baltimore and graduated from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1976. For more than 30 years, Dr. Knipp practiced diagnostic radiology specializing in mammography, breast ultrasound, biopsy, women’s imaging and general diagnostic radiology.

Dr. Harry Knipp Recollects... (Part I)

As long-time MedChi member, Dr. Harry Knipp was doing a Covid clear-out, he discovered some old pictures of the University of Maryland. He was kind enough to let me share his thoughts and his photos. 

In medical school in 1974, I did a summer fellowship as an infection control officer at University of Maryland Hospital (now called University of Maryland Medical Center or UMMC). 

Our office was on the 13th floor turret-like top of the old 1934 Art Deco portion of the hospital and from up there, there were some nice views of the city, so I brought in my SLR and grabbed shots in all but the north direction as those windows had been walled off. (See Part II)

UMMC began life in 1823 as the Baltimore Infirmary. It was the very first medical school affiliated teaching hospital in the United States. A hospital building was constructed on the southwest corner of Lombard and Greene Streets, and served as University Hospital until 1934. My great-grandfather and grandfather both learned medicine there and both served on its staff. 

In 1934, a new state-of-the-art, Art Deco, cross-shaped hospital was constructed at 22 S. Greene Street, extending north to abut Redwood Street. This was originally ten stories on each of the four wings, with a 15-story central tower, including the elevator house. Two additional floors were added to the four wings at a later date. 

My father learned medicine in this hospital. As he was finishing in 1951, the Psychiatric Institute building was opened, attached in a T-fashion to the end of the 1934 hospital’s west wing, with its courtyard extending to Penn Street. Finished in 1972, a huge 13-story north wing was added that blocked Redwood Street between Penn and Greene Streets. 

When this addition was completed, the original old hospital at Lombard and Greene which had housed the outpatient clinics was torn down, and today the beautiful Health Science and Human Services Library and the campus student center occupy that site. 

I had my med school admission chest x-ray in the original building before it was demolished and I went on to learn in the 1934 and 1972 structures, now with over 800 beds. My son trained in medicine there, too. 

In addition, through the hard work of our late med school dean Dr. John Dennis, in the early 1990's, the modern 327-bed Baltimore VA Medical Center was constructed at Baltimore and Greene Streets. and is connected to the UMMC North Hospital by a bridge over Baltimore Street. 

In recent years, yet another addition was made to UMMC, with the Gudelsky tower, encompassing the old dental school and allied health building on the northwest corner of Lombard and Greene Streets, including an overarching atrium dome, and new buildings along Lombard extending to the new ER and Shock Trauma buildings at Lombard and Penn. 

Overall, the UM Baltimore campus with its seven professional and graduate schools and BioPark now occupy about 75 acres of the west side of the city. It all began, as did the entire University of Maryland, with the Medical School in 1807, [which was actually founded by MedChi, and why the original name was the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland] which is the fifth oldest, and oldest public med school in the U.S. Please click here to see the photographs and Dr. Knipp's remarks on them. 

Dr. Knipp was born and raised in Baltimore and graduated from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1976. For more than 30 years, Dr. Knipp practiced diagnostic radiology specializing in mammography, breast ultrasound, biopsy, women’s imaging and general diagnostic radiology.

Happy 111th Birthday!

Today is the 111th anniversary of the opening of our building on Cathedral Street. For the first century, the Faculty had bounced from space to space, including at one point, McNamara's Saloon, also known as the Emerald Hotel. 

In the early 1890's, the Faculty, as it was then known, purchased a building on Hamilton Terrace, just a few blocks away from our current space, and thought that it would be their "forever" building. But within a few years, they had already outgrown it. Not only was there not enough room for meetings, the space they had anticipated being the library was too small. 

Dr. William Osler, who was the President in 1896, not only hired Marcia Noyes, but he also began thinking of constructing a purpose-built headquarters building for the Faculty. It would take another 13 years for this to happen.

During that time, Marcia and Dr. Osler looked at other medical society buildings, and figured out what would make the building as effective as possible for everything that went on in it. Obviously, large and numerous meeting rooms were the top demand, followed by some office space, a reading room and a stacks library. 

The County of Kings in New York (now Brooklyn) had a building that seemed to be the model for our current building, which was designed by local architects, Ellicott & Emmart who designed many other buildings around Baltimore. 

There was some concern between Dr. Osler and Marcia that the Faculty would tear the building on Hamilton Terrace and not include an apartment for Marcia. This fear was allayed by purchasing the lot on Cathedral Street and building from scratch.

Construction was started in August of 1908. By the time the building opened in May of 1909, Dr. Osler had been living in Oxford, England for a few years, but he was still a big supporter. The opening was arranged with him, so he could be in Baltimore for the celebrations, and for the dedication of the hall that had been named for him. 

Dr. Osler, along with numerous civic and religious dignitaries and members of the faculty gathered for a dedication on May 13, and then for a grand dinner. In a note to Marcia several days later, Dr. Osler says that he's never been so pleased with anything in his life. 

Overall, the building has not changed too much over the past 111 years. A few walls have been shifted, bathrooms were added (although there are still very few), an elevator was installed and some renovations were done. But I think that if Marcia or Dr. Osler were to pop in, they would have no problem recognizing the building that was part of their legacy. 

As Dr. Albert Chatard said at Marcia's retirement about the building they'd created, "Miss Noyes created a reality of the hopes and dreams Dr. Osler formulated while he was at Hopkins… On this foundation, she worked constantly, before and after he left Baltimore, as his understudy to create an atmosphere both effective and genial, so that people would like to come to the building… and would feel that interesting and important things were going on under its roof."

To read more about MedChi's collection of buildings, please click here.

Helen Warfield Boyer, Past President of the Maryland State Medical Auxiliary

Helen Warfield (Souder) Boyer, 95, lifelong resident of Damascus, Maryland, died peacefully of natural causes at her home on May 6, 2020.  

Born to Archie and Sallie Souder, Helen spent her childhood on the family farm. She graduated as valedictorian of the Damascus High School class of 1942, attending two years of college and a year of law school at the George Washington University. Financial circumstances caused her to leave school to work full-time for the only physicians in the Damascus area: her future husband, Dr. M. McKendree Boyer, and his father, Dr. George M. Boyer.

Despite having no formal training in the medical field, Helen became an integral part of the Boyer practice. She assisted with a wide range of clinical functions and eventually managed all business aspects of the practice. Helen and her husband also undertook construction of the Boyer Medical Building in 1964; she significantly expanded the building in 1992 and continued its management until 2012.

Throughout her husband’s life and after his death, Helen devoted her time, energy, and financial resources to the medical community. She served as President of the Montgomery General Hospital (now MedStar Montgomery) Women’s Board, President of the Montgomery County Medical Auxiliary, and President of the Maryland State Medical Auxiliary. Her husband was president of MedChi from 1963-1964.

Mrs. Boyer was also active in the Southern Medical Auxiliary and helped establish medical auxiliary organizations in other counties throughout Maryland. She was the first female and first non-physician chairperson of the Maryland Medical Political Action Committee. In 2011, she was recognized by MedStar Montgomery with the Face of Philanthropy Award for her dedication to and support of the hospital.

Mrs. Boyer was also active in a variety of other organizations. She was the first female Director of the Bank of Damascus, the first female member of the Damascus Lions Club, a lifelong member and supporter of the Damascus United Methodist Church, and a member of local travel and investment clubs. She loved to dance and enthusiastically supported local sports teams.

Mrs. Boyer was always happier putting others before herself, and she will be remembered for her warmth, generosity, wisdom, strength, and quick wit. She was an inspiring woman who will be deeply missed.

Mrs. Boyer is survived by her three children, Sally Boyer Smith (Randy), Dr. George M. Boyer, (Alicia), and McKendree W. Boyer (Mary). Dr. Boyer is a MedChi member and is the Chair of the Department of Medicine at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore. 

Please find the biography of her husband, Dr. M. McKendree Boyer, a past president of MedChi, here.