The founding of the second Saint Louis University Medical School is quite the convoluted story, and if I make any errors, please let me know in the comments! It is the story of two earlier schools, the Beaumont Medical School and the Marion Sims Medical School and their eventual uniting under the SLU aegis. There is not a lot of information about the Beaumont Medical College, except that it was located in the crowded Mill Creek Valley. There are two photographs of it, and it seems like the building down the street above is the same structure as below, though the latter is after the college had been stripped of much of its ornament. It was founded in 1884.
Let’s head west, to the high ground along South Grand Boulevard in between what are now Highway 40 and Interstate 44. The stretch was once lined with stately mansions, such as the one below, but they have all been torn down, except for one shingle style house (or two, depending on how you count them).
Meanwhile, a group of physicians founded the Marion Sims School of Medicine in 1890 at the south east corner of Caroline Street and Grand. James Marion Sims, sometimes called the father of gynecology, was a really terrible person, which you can read about here. I featured the school in this post back in February of 2024.
Interestingly, there was a small hospital, now largely forgotten and about which there is next to nothing written, named the Rebeckah (or Rebecca) Hospital. Looking closely at the “Marion Sims Dental College” building in the Sanborn map below, I have to wonder if a new front was built onto a large mansion (note the bay window).
As you can see below, there is another house that once faced Grand that has received a larger office building front.
I am curious if this older building below was part of the old hospital buildings.
In 1903, the Beaumont-Marions Sims Medical College was absorbed by Saint Louis University, located just to the north over the Grand Viaduct in Midtown. The university used the old buildings for a while, before building the massive and prominent school that now dominates the east side of Grand opposite the old Desloge Hospital building.
For the life of me, I have not been able to figure out an architect or when this largest building was constructed, or a timeline of the obvious additions built at different times.
It now wraps itself around older buildings along with a penthouse that holds HVAC like a giant umbrella over the entire complex.
