112 Years Young!

In the 1890's, the Faculty, as it was then known, bought a building on Hamilton Terrace, a small block off of Eutaw Street. After bouncing from place to place for the past 100 years, the Faculty finally thought they had their forever home. 

But they didn't count on the combined forces of Marcia Noyes and Dr. William Osler. Marcia was a former librarian at Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library, and Dr. Osler was a bibliophile of the highest order. Together, they built one of the leading medical libraries of its time. 

When the Faculty moved into Hamilton Terrace, the books had been randomly boxed up for the move, so they were completely disordered when they were unboxed. Marcia quickly put them into order, and Osler began acquiring additional and up-to-date medical volumes. 

Within a year or so, they realized that they were running out of room for a permanent library at Hamilton Terrace, and began searching for a property to build their permanent permanent home!

In 1905, Osler left Baltimore for the position of Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, but he continued to advocate for a new building. Finally, a property was located just a few blocks away, the architects Ellicott & Emmart were engaged and in 1908, construction began. 

Architecturally, the building is very similar to the Medical Society of the County of Kings' building in New York. Marcia, in her role as a founder of the Medical Library Association, had traveled around the country visiting other medical societies, hospitals and universities, and had the opportunity to see what worked in a building with a library, and what didn't.

When the building was constructed, the stacks were added to the original plans. Four floors on interconnected cast iron formed the skeleton of that section of the building. 

The dedication of the building was coordinated with Dr. Osler's scheduled visit to the US and indeed, to Baltimore. Although he was living in Oxford, he continued to fundraise for the building, and after it was finished, he helped erase the debt, both by fundraising and donating. The great and the good assembled to help with the dedication, and Dr. Osler made one of his seminal speeches, "The Old and New." 

From Dr. Harvey Cushing's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "The Life of Sir William Osler" comes this first-hand account of the event:

With COVID-19 protocols still in place, we haven't really used the building for the past 14+ months. No committee meetings, no lectures, no busy staff getting things done, no tours, nothing. Six of us rattle around here, along with Marcia, the resident ghost. Things will change again, and we'll still have our building.