History and Achievements

The attire of these students in a 1927 laboratory indicates that medical schooling then was rather formal.

The first building on the U Health Sciences Center Campus, the Cancer Research Building, was completed in 1948. Among ground breaking participants were Elroy Nelson, Utah State Building Board chair, bending with shovel; and architect B.E. Brazier, second from right.

Three rooms in the building now called the LeRoy Cowles Building on Presidents' Circle were 'home' to the medical school from 1905, when the two year program started, to 1920. In the very early years, only a high school education was required for acceptance to medical school.

In 1920, this dormitory for cavalry officers to be trained at the U during World War I was remodeled into the medical school building.

The Salt Lake County General Hospital, five miles from campus, was the clinical arm of the medical school from 1942-1965. Old and poorly equipped, the facility was a sharp contrast to well-endowed hospitals that the new U faculty had left behind.

The architecture model for the 1965 Medical Center was on display during 1962 cornerstone ceremonies. Dignitaries included Leland B. Flint, chair of the Medical Center Fund campaign, left; Clarence Bamberger, vice chair; Royden G. Derrick, U Board of Regents chair; L. David Hiner, Ph.D., dean of U College of Pharmacy, Harry Loynd, president, Parke, Davis, and Co.; U of U President A. Ray Olpin; and Utah Gov. George D. Clyde.

Three vertical Danish Linden cranes, designed especially for the construction of the 1965 medical center, could be seen from blocks away. The Cancer Research Building, built in 1948, is at the right in the background; the Rehabilitation Wing, finished in 1961, at left.