A Century of Caring: The Health Sciences at the University of Iowa, 1850-1950: College of Medicine
Fire of 1901
On a sleety Sunday morning in March 1901, the University of Iowa Medical Building burned to the ground. A first-floor blaze later explained as "spontaneous combustion" quickly spread up the elevator shaft to the top of the four-story building. Explosions rang out as flammable chemicals ignited. One excited newspaper account spoke of "devil possessed flames" shooting up two hundred feet from the roof and high winds "[tearing] great burning boards from the building and carry[ing] them for blocks away." |
17. University of Iowa's old medical building, 1890, courtesy of the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy |
18. Demolishing the old medical building, March 1901, courtesy of the Kent Collection, University of Iowa Archives |
The blaze was over by dawn. No one was seriously hurt, since the building was empty when the fire started. However, everything in the Medical Building was lost, including a collection of European microscopes, an anatomical museum valued at $10,000, and a 1,200-volume medical library. Thirty cadavers for dissection and various texts and lecture notes were also destroyed. |
The Medical Building and its neighbor South Hall, which was also destroyed, were not widely mourned. The Iowa City Daily Republican spoke for many people in saying the fire "simply removed some more cheap structures" that had seemingly been built "on the theory that Iowa was here only temporarily." A makeshift structure nicknamed the "sheep shed" was quickly built over South Hall's foundation, and alternate classroom space was found for the duration-meaning that the medical students didn't miss a day of class. |
19. Medical (Sheep) Shed, 1905, courtesy of the Calvin Collection, University of Iowa Department of Geology |
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