New York Medical College - History of New York Medical College

History of New York Medical College

New York Medical College owes its founding in 1860 to a group of civic leaders who believed that medical studies should be practiced with a better understanding of what the patient needs. This group of civic leaders was led by the noted poet William Cullen Bryant who was an editor of the New York Evening Post. Bryant was concerned about the condition of hospitals and medical education in New York City. His main concern was with some of the medical practices being used to treat disease, which at the time included bleedings, purges, and the administration of strong drugs in too large doses.

Interest in the medical field rapidly grew over the next few years due to the United States Civil War, which generated a major need for health related occupations. As a result, the college was founded and opened as the Homeopathic Medical College of the State of New York on the corner of 20th Street and Third Avenue, near Union Square in Manhattan. In the first semester there were 59 students and 8 professors. The college adopted the name New York Homeopathic Medical College in 1869 and, in 1887, New York Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital.

A separate institution known as the New York Medical College for Women was founded a few years later in 1863. In 1867, it graduated Emily Stowe, the first female physician to practice in Canada. Three years later in 1870, Susan McKinney Stewart graduated as the first African-American female physician in New York State. When the Women's College closed in 1918, its students transferred to New York Medical College.

In 1875, Metropolitan Hospital Center opened as a municipal facility on Ward’s Island, staffed largely by the faculty of New York Medical College. As a university hospital of New York Medical College, this relationship is among the nation’s oldest continuing affiliations between a private medical school and a public hospital.

Built by New York Medical College in 1889, The Flower Free Surgical Hospital, was the first teaching hospital in the United States to be owned by a medical college. It was constructed at York Avenue and 63rd Street with funds given largely by Congressman Roswell P. Flower, later governor of New York. In 1908 the College changed its name to New York Homeopathic Medical College and Flower Hospital. In 1928 the College was the first medical school in the nation to establish a minority scholarship program. By 1935, the College had transferred its outpatient activities to the Fifth Avenue Hospital at Fifth Avenue and 106th Street. The College (including Flower Hospital) and Fifth Avenue Hospital merged in 1938 and became New York Medical College, Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals.

In 1972, New York Medical College opened a campus in Valhalla, at the invitation of the Westchester County government, which desired to build an academic medical center. Completed in 1977, Westchester Medical Center is currently the main academic medical center of the College. The College became affiliated with the Archdiocese of New York in 1978, which helped provide financial stability and also established a shared commitment for the public good in the area of health care and the health sciences. The College recognized itself in the Catholic tradition and affiliated with several Catholic hospitals. When Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospital closed in 1979, the main operations of New York Medical College were transferred to the Valhalla campus. The college shortened its name to New York Medical College in 1982.

In 1984, the New York State Department of Education recognized the status of New York Medical College as a university.

In December 2009, it was announced that Touro College in Manhattan had reached an agreement to assume the sponsorship role for New York Medical College from the Archdiocese of New York. New York Medical College officially joined the Touro College and University System on May 25, 2011 in a ceremony held at Bryant Park.