College of Medicine Timeline

1879 – 8 physicians invest $625 each to secure charter from Arkansas Industrial University (later to become University of Arkansas)
Purchase of first physical facilities -- Sperindio Restaurant and Hotel located at 113 West Second Street for $5,000
School opens October 7, 1879 with 22 students

1890 – Enrollment increases to 80 students entering each year
Design and contract let for new building Sherman Street at the northeast corner with East Second Street
Three story brick building with lecture room and classrooms

1892 – Isaac Folsom of Lonoke, Arkansas bequest provides for a free clinic for indigent patients and first floor is modified to house clinic exam rooms, and pharmacy, giving rise to the Isaac Folsom Clinic
Second floor contains dean and registrar offices, operating and recovery room, and amphitheater
Third floor consists of clinical laboratories and tuberculosis clinic

1899 – Name change to University of Arkansas Medical Department

1910 – Carnegie Foundation report calls for improvements in the nation’s medical schools and American Medical Association’s Council on Education endorses and adopts accreditation requirements

1911 – University of Arkansas officially assumes direction of the Medical Department on July 5, 1911

1913-1915 – Legislature acknowledges financial responsibility and appropriates $35,000 to fund biennium

1912 – Completion of new State Capitol and old State Capitol Building on Markham and Center is assigned to the medical school by legislature

1921 – Completion of new City Hospital, medical school regains accreditation
Old State Capitol renamed the Arkansas State War Memorial by State Legislature

1929 – Wall Street Crash

1931 – Legislature appropriated $275,000 for new building; architect and site selected however bonds that would provide money never sold

1933 –President Franklin Roosevelt’s Public Works Administration commences
U.S. Senator Joseph T. Robinson encourages building plans
$500,000 provided and plans reactivated and construction begins
Construction begins facing on McAlmont Street between the City Hospital and the Carle Bentley home
Built to accommodate 300 students with 6 floors

1934-35 – Enrollment increases to 229

1935 – Student run bookstore opens

1936 – AMA rejects school’s application for full accreditation

1940 – Two story connection between Medical School facility and City Hospital
includes waiting room for out-patients and hospital admissions, 2 emergency rooms, clinical laboratory, blood bank, instrumentation room, and pediatric department

1940 – Dr. W.C. Langston speaks out on concept of a medical center and idea begins to take shape

1944 – City Hospital renamed University Hospital

1951 – Governor Sid McMath and Senator Ellis Fagan convince Legislature to appropriate $7.4 million
October 6, groundbreaking held for new University Hospital located on the grounds of the State Hospital for Nervous Diseases in West Little Rock

1954 – Funds for educational building freed-up and contracts awarded
Building includes accommodations for the School of Nursing, Pathology, Microbiology, Physiology/Pharmacology, Biochemistry, Anatomy, Animal Quarters, Library, and auditorium

1957 – Federal loan funds secured and student residence building and student union construction begins
Dr. Jeff Banks dies and building named in his honor

1959-60 – Jeff Banks Student Union and Residence Building opens

1961 – Funds from Colonel T.H. Barton, the Lutterloh Trust and the Buchanan Foundation donate funding along with federal matching dollars to construct the T.H. Barton Research Building

1969 – Funds appropriated by the Legislature, contingency funds guaranteed by Governor Winthrop Rockefeller, funds transferred from the Arkansas State Hospital along with matching federal funds from the Community Mental Health Centers Act create the million dollar Child Study Center

1974 – Construction begins on Education Building II with funds of over $20 million provided by the Legislature and approved by Governor Dale Bumpers
Includes two large amphitheaters, classrooms, three-level library and multi-media/audio-visual support units

1980 – Ambulatory Care Center completed

1981 – Ambulatory Care Center officially denominated the Isaac Folsom Clinic

1981 – Education Building One renamed the Winston K. Shorey Building

1989 – Arkansas Cancer Research Center opens

1990 – Outpatient Surgery opens

1994 – Harvey and Bernice Jones Eye Institute opens

1997 – Donald W. Reynolds Center on Aging opens

2001 – College of Public Health established

2003 – Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute opens

2003 – College of Public Health opens