Meharry Medical College - Meharrian Yearbook (Nashville, TN)

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0 The Founding and History of Meliarry It was dusk in the year 18545 down a lonely Ken- tucky road traveled an ox drawn wagon bearing a sixteen year old boy. The wagon was heavy-laden with salt which he had purchased and l'J1'Ollgl1f back with him across the Ohio River. A load greater than the wagon could bear, a breakdown in this isolated area . . . where could he get help! ln the distance a light shone from the cabin of a Negro freedman and his family-a source of food, lodging and help in repairing the wagon-a simple act of kindness-a milestone in the history of medical edu- cation. Young Samuel Meharry never forgot the humani- tarian spirit of the Kentucky cabin dweller. More than twenty years later when talk of the need of a medical school for Negro physicians arose, he con- tributed S500 toward the establishment of the Medi- cal Department of Central Tennessee College, an in- stitution founded in Nashville 10 years earlier by the Freedman's Aid Society for the Methodist Episcopal Church. This was the embryo of Meharry Medical College. The following year he persuaded his broth- ers Hugh, David, jesse, and Alexander to help him in supporting the venture. They together gave 320,000 in 1875 to found Meharry Medical College. VVhen in 1900, Central Tennessee College was re- organized as Wialden University. the medical depart- ment became known as Meharry Medical College of XX-lalden University. Later a separate corporate ex- istence was sought, and in 1915 a new charter was granted by the State of Tennessee. During its early years, Meharry Medical College was located in the southern section of Nashville, near the corner of First Avenue and Chestnut Street. Housed in several buildings which were nevertheless adequate for its needs during that period. Its prin- cipal sources of support were the Methodist Church, Meharry Alumni and their families, the citizens of Nashville, the Rosenwald Fund, and later, the Car- Page 3 negie Foundation and the General Education Board. As the college continued to grow, the contributions of the two Rockefeller boards became increasingly decisive, amounting, in the years from 1917 on to more than eight and a half million dollars. Beyond this, by maintaining close contact with the institution and its problems, the foundation contributed valuable guidance and advice and by seeking key men and awarding them fellowships for further study, it as- sisted the college in building an able faculty. During the 1920's Meharry's continued expansion and improvement, coupled with the obsolescence of its early plant and facilities. made it imperative that a completely new plant be built on a more advan- tageous site. Through the continued efforts of the Administration, the generous contributions of the General Education Board, the Rosenwald Fund, Mr. George Eastman, the Harkness Foundation, the City of Nashville and the Meharry Alumni, new property was acquired in northwest Nashville and a modern school and hospital costing over two million dollars were erected, during the years 1930-31. The present campus embraces six acres. and the plant consists of six separate buildings: the main building which houses the medical and dental schools, research wing and the hospital with its new one million dollar wing: the female students' residence: the doctors' residence for interns and resident physiciansg the maintenance plantg Alumni Hall Cafeteriag and Alumni Hall Dormitory, both contributed by the Meharry Alumni. Meharry's First graduating class, i11 1877, con- sisted of one student. A year later there were three. Today the students in its two schools-the School of Medicine and the School of Dentistry-number 344 and they annually graduate approximately 40? of all the Negro physicians and dentists in the country.

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Intern and Resident Quarters Page 10 Today' Hulda Margaret Lyttle Hall, Female Students' Residence