from the collection of Columbia University Library
The College of Physicians and Surgeons traced its beginnings to 1767 when King's College established the first medical school in New York and the second in the Colonies. On May 5, 1855, after having moved several times since its first permanent building at 3 Barclay Street near City Hall Park, the college acquired the vacant, northeast corner of 23rd Street and Fourth Avenue (later Park Avenue South) for $35,000.
According to John Call Dalton in his 1863 History of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, "by the end of the year [work] was so far completed that it was determined to remove the College during the winter holidays." The official opening was held on January 22, 1856.
The brick and brownstone building rose four stories (the windowless fourth floor was unseen from the street, "lighted only from the roof," according to Dalton) and faced 23rd Street. While the overall design was Greek Revival with double-height Doric pilasters and a classical pediment, the architect gave it a dramatic Italianate entrance above a curved, split staircase. Stores on the avenue provided rental income to the school.
Construction and furnishings cost $55,930, bringing the school's total outlay to $90,000--a significant $3.34 million in 2024. The New-York Tribune, in reporting on the inauguration ceremonies, called the "newly erected edifice" a "handsome and spacious structure." The New York Times reported, "Not fewer than a thousand persons were congregated last evening in the lecture-room of the elegant and commodious building," and called it, "in every respect a large, handsome and ornamental structure."
History of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 1863 (copyright expired)
On the second (or main) floor were the 45-by-50 foot lecture room, the chemistry laboratory, and offices and private rooms. On the third floor were the anatomical museum, the 45-by-50 foot amphitheater (capable of seating over 300), waiting and examination rooms for patients, and the anatomical and physiological preparation rooms. The top floor held the "general dissecting room, accommodating twenty-five tables," according to Dalton.
Corpses were normally obtained for the dissection classes from hospitals, after the college received the routine permits. In January 1879, however, it received a distinguished cadaver--that of esteemed physician, author and researcher Dr. A. Habel. Born in Austria, Habel had made several expeditions to South America, sending specimens back to the Smithsonian. The Institution published several of Habel's books.
Dr. Habel died on January 1, 1879. His will said in part:
Finally, my life having been devoted to the interests of Humanity, I desire after my death my body may be devoted to the same end, and for this reason I desire and demand that my corpse shall be delivered to the dissecting-room of any of the colleges in the City of New-York which will accept of it, for the purposes of dissection.
The College of Physicians & Surgeons was chosen by Habel's executor. On January 5, The New York Times reported, "The remains were yesterday removed to the dissecting-room of the college."
On October 25, 1884, The Record & Guide reported on William H. Vanderbilt's generous gift of a new building for the College of Physicians & Surgeons. Construction of the new complex at 437 West 59th Street was completed in 1887 and on January 15 that year The Record & Guide reported that ice cream mogul J. M. Horton had purchased the 23rd Street property. "It is whispered that on the removal of the College...Mr. Horton will build a large hotel," said the article.
Instead, Horton leased the building to the Packard Business College. Founded in 1858 by Silas Sadler Packard, its one-year programs trained students for careers in business, with courses in bookkeeping, business arithmetic, and commercial correspondence. Somewhat shockingly to some, Packard Business College accepted both male and female students.
An announcement in The New York Times on August 22, 1887 read:
On the 5th of September Packard's Business College will reopen in its magnificent new home, corner 23d-st. and 4th-av., the building formerly owned and occupied by the College of Physicians and Surgeons, now wholly reconstructed and beautified, and making, altogether, the finest and most luxurious apartments used for this purpose in the world.
In fact, construction delays postponed the opening until September 19.
Packard's Business College signage was affixed to the facades. The date of construction can be seen on the third floor, above the entrance.
Graduation ceremonies, which were necessarily held off-site, were serious affairs. On May 21, 1890, for instance, The New York Times reported, "Almost every seat in the Metropolitan Opera House was occupied last night when S. S. Packard opened the thirty-second anniversary and graduating exercises of the Packard business College and School of Stenography. It was a brilliant assemblage, many of the ladies and gentlemen being in evening dress." The graduation march had been composed expressly for the event.
From the school's inception, Silas S. Packard had been a champion of women in the workplace. On May 30, 1891, the New-York Tribune reported, "At the Packard Business College yesterday morning the question of 'Women's Wages' was discussed. Mr. Packard opened the discussion. Several of the young men took part in the debate." (That debate continues today.)
On Silas Sadler Packard's 70th birthday, April 28, 1896, the educator was feted at Delmonico's. During the banquet he received a silver loving cup.
Two years later, on October 27, 1898, he died. In reporting his death, The New York Times recalled his efforts to advance women in the workplace.
Many years ago he educated, without cost to themselves, thirty young women to prove to the business community that he had at command a number of well-trained and efficient women clerks who were not only able to work, but were willing to do so, and who could readily supplant inefficient office boys and young men who depended upon their sex to hold their own.
The building was threatened on the night of September 25, 1903, when fire broke out in the elevator shaft. The New-York Tribune reported, "The flames shot up the shaft, attacking the floors, on which are class and assembly rooms." The two-alarm fire was sparked, according to Battalion Chief Ross, by "a possible defective electric wire" and "waste in the elevator shaft." The damages amounted to just over $100,000 in today's money.
King's Photographic Views of New York, 1895 (copyright expired)
On September 4, 1909, The Record & Guide reported that J. M. Horton would replace the vintage building with a commercial building. For some reason, Horton changed his mind the and the structure survived. Two years later, however, it was sadly disfigured. On July 15, 1911, The Record & Guide reported that because of the widening of 23rd Street, "the high stone steps to the Packard Business College...have been chopped off entirely."
At the time, the school's handsome new home at 253 Lexington Avenue was nearly completed. After the college moved out, the 23rd Street building was converted to artists' studios. Among the residents in 1915 was the dancer and choreographer Isadora Duncan.
Isadora Duncan with students. from the collection of the New York Public Library
On March 9, 1915, The New York Times reported, "To express their support of the work which Isadora Duncan, the dancer, is doing toward the creation of new ideals, more than forty representative actors, artists, musicians, and literary men met Sunday night in her studio in the old Packard Business School at Twenty-third Street and Fourth Avenue" The group formed a committee pledging support to Duncan "by their influence."
In 1917, after war broke out in Europe, philanthropist Jeremiah Milbank donated $50,000 to the Red Cross. The former Packard building was purchased and converted to the Red Cross Institute for War Cripples. Here disabled soldiers received vocational rehabilitation.
The institute continued in the post-war years. On September 21, 1919, the New-York Tribune reported on the baseball game of the newly organized Red Cross Institute Club. Using terminology deemed offensive today, the article said, "The cripples play every day at noon. Every morning and afternoon they work at bench trades, learning to be draughtsmen, jewellers [sic] and typewriter repairmen."
At the time of the article, the end of the line was near for the vintage building. It was demolished in 1921 to make way for a five-story building designed by Gronenberg & Leuchtag that survives.
photograph by the author
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