1215-1217 Cathedral Street

I recently found out that MedChi once owned the two buildings directly to the north of our 1909 building, 1215 and 1217 Cathedral Street.

The School 49 building is on the right and 1215-1217 is to the left. 

In 1935, the owner of the two properties died, and in 1936, the Faculty, as it was then known, bought the two for $6,500, or $862,000 in today's money. The plan was to expand the Faculty's building and relocate the Board of Medical Examiners and the Committee on Careers in Nursing to the building. 

At the semi-annual House of Delegates meeting, the members were encouraged to visit the new buildings, and check the display of bookplates (some of which are now displayed in our Museum).

On the left side of the image, you can see a "white" house that looks like two joined houses, which would have been 1215 and 1217.

During the 1950's, plans were to demolish the two buildings and build a three-story building as an annex to the 1909 building.

But at the semi-annual House of Delegates meeting in April of 1960, that plan was dropped and a new plan was formulated to renovate and upgrade the original building, including adding an elevator, air conditioning and new seating for Osler Hall. 

This may have been the period in which all of the decorative elements from Osler Hall were removed and the Hall was stripped to Mid Century Modern blandness. (Details here)

Osler Hall, Circa 1962

At some point in the early 1960s, the buildings were demolished.

1961 and the adjacent buildings have been demolished.  Cathedral Street is one-way, southbound.

Plans to build a parking lot there to supplement the parking on the Maryland Avenue side. Half of the current lot was the playground for the adjacent School #49. 

The Return of Dr. John Davidge

A series of curious events occurred over the past few days. Let me recap for you...

On Thursday, I received a text from an old sailing friend of mine. She was helping friends clean out a property in Fells Point, and came across an old painting of John Davidge. If you don't know, Davidge Hall, at the University of Maryland's School of Medicine, is the oldest medical school building still in use.

It was built in 1814 and named for John Beale Davidge, one of the founders of the school (along with MedChi).

The painting was found in a closet, completely forgotten. As my friend read the plaque, she saw that he was an early physician, and knew that I worked at the Medical Society. She asked if we'd be interested in buying it, and of course I said YES and sent them a payment instantly!

I picked the painting up on Saturday and had a chance to examine it over the weekend. Everything looked right for the time it would have been painted. I did some research on the painter, but couldn't come up with anything that worked with the timeframe. 

On Monday, I called Larry Pitrof, the Executive Director of the UM Medical Alumni Association (MAA) to ask what he knew about the original painting of Davidge that I assumed they owned. 

He told me that the one contemporary painting they had, which was in an oval frame, was stolen in the early 1990s, when Davidge Hall was the President's office, and was open to the public all of the time. 

About ten years ago, MAA commissioned a painting of Dr. Davidge so they would have some representation of him. 

A black and white photograph of that painting, which I've seen, was lost, as well, probably during one of their renovations.

Larry was VERY interested in the portrait, so I decided to donate it to them as Davidge Hall is the only place the portrait belongs. They will have MedChi's and my name included on the plaque as the donors of the painting. 

Medical Alumni Magazine, Summer 2025

For the MAA to have a nearly contemporary painting of one of the School's founders, and the Hall's namesake is huge for the University, and I hope that we get some publicity out of this discovery.

I dropped off the painting on Monday afternoon, to the delight of the Larry who had never seen any copy of the painting.

Meg Fairfax Fielding with the Davidge portrait.

After it's cleaned up, and the renovations are completed, it will take pride of place at Davidge Hall. We are so pleased about how all of this turned out. 

Update One: Here's a great story about this from Baltimore Fishbowl. And a nice piece from the UMSoM. Big article from the Baltimore Sun (gift article).

Update Two: There is some question, by those who know WAY more than I do, about the date of the painting, and whether the date was changed from 1944 to 1844, because the painter's dates don't work with the 1844 date. As I only had the portrait for 48 hours, I didn't get a chance to do any deep research on the painting, the canvas or the dates. I only know what I saw. Even if the painting was 1944, it's still the oldest known painting of Dr. Davidge.