San Francisco: Historical Overview
The history of the San Francisco Medical
Center dated from 1864 when Dr. Hugh H. Toland founded the Toland
Medical College. Although the second medical school to be established
in the west, it was the oldest in continuous operation. In 1873,
this college, under the leadership of Dean R. Beverly Cole, became
the Medical Department of the University of California.
Colleges are Formed
The California College of Pharmacy was organized
at San Francisco in 1872. Even before its inauguration exercise
of July 9, 1873, the college became affiliated with the University.
The arrangement permitted the college to maintain its own board
of trustees and business management. This relationship continued
until 1934 when the college became an integral part of the University.
In 1881, the College of
Dentistry was established in a symbolic relationship with the Medical
Department, sharing its physical plant as well as four of its faculty
members. For a decade the two schools occupied common quarters;
however, in 1891 the dental faculty sought larger quarters and separated
its teaching activities from the Medical School.
In the 1890's, the Medical Department and Colleges
of Pharmacy and Dentistry were housed in privately owned buildings
in downtown San Francisco. But just before the turn of the century,
Dr. Cole obtained sufficient support from the legislature to construct
on the present site of the Medical Center, three large Romanesque
buildings to house these "affiliated" colleges. The land for this
undertaking was a gift of Adolph Sutro, mayor of San Francisco.
During the San Francisco earthquake and fire most
of the city's hospitals were destroyed, giving rise to a serious
shortage of medical facilities. The Affiliated Colleges, which survived
the calamity, rose to the occasion. The College of Medicine transferred
the first two years of instruction to the Berkeley campus, making
room for the first University Hospital and a training school for
nurses. This endeavor was the forerunner of the present School of
Nursing which was established by the Regents on March 17, 1939.
Ten years later, its faculty was given full academic status in the
University Hospital and Other Facilities
Although the first University Hospital began
operation in 1907, it soon became apparent that further hospital
accommodations would be required to meet the increased demand for
clinical facilities. Dr. Herbert C. Moffitt, dean of the School
of Medicine, was successful in obtaining funds from private sources
for the construction of the University of California Hospital which
opened its doors in 1917.
The next addition to the clinical facilities was
the Clinics Building which was constructed under a work program
of the state and opened in 1934. The Herbert C. Moffitt Hospital
opened in 1955 and the Medical Sciences Building was completed in
Two other movements resulted in additional facilities
for the Medical Center. The first was begun in 1921 by the Associated
Dental Students under the leadership of its president, Willard C.
Fleming, who became dean of the School of Dentistry in 1939 and
continued to serve in that capacity until 1965. Encouraged by Dean
Guy S. Millberry, the students built a shack for use as a cafeteria.
This venture proved successful and the dental students went on to
establish the Dental Supply Store in 1925. These two projects eventually
came under the management of Dr. George Steninger, a graduate of
the class of 1925, who set up what amounted to a one-man drive to
receive gifts from the alumni of all four schools and raised funds
which, when matched by the Regents and added to the profits from
the cafeteria and store were sufficient to begin construction of
the Guy S. Millberry Union, which opened in 1958.
The second movement aimed at expanding facilities
was begun by Dean Langley Porter of the School of Medicine, who
prevailed upon the California Department of Mental Hygiene to affiliate
with the University and construct a neuropsychiatric clinic near
the Medical Center; the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute
was opened in 1943.
The University Develops
With the completion of Millberry Union and
the Medical Sciences Building in 1958, the interrelationship of
the four schools became a reality in practice as well as theory.
In Millberry Union, the students and faculty shared social, cultural,
and recreational facilities; in the Medical Sciences Building, they
shared classrooms and lecture facilities as well as some basic science
instruction. Further unification of the schools had begun in 1947
with the formation of Associated Students of the University of California,
San Francisco Medical Center.
The bonds between the clinical and basic sciences
were cemented by the establishment of the Graduate Division in 1961.
Also on campus were nine organized research units which dealt with
specialized aspects of the health sciences that were interdisciplinary
in nature. In addition, research was conducted by staff members
of every school and department and in several special units and
The First Chancellor
The San Francisco Medical Center took its
place alongside the other campuses of the University in 1964 with
the designation of its provost, John B. deC. M. Saunders, as chancellor.
To assure optimal use of resources, the campus engaged in extensive
academic and fiscal planning. As a result, it became possible to
prepare a Long Range Development Plan for physical growth on the
San Francisco campus. This plan provided for two modern towers for
teaching and research, as well as plans for administration and other
buildings to be constructed in the future.
UCSF in the 1960's
By the 1960's, the San Francisco Medical
Center faced a future that might include an expanded role in which
the San Francisco campus would have an initial commitment to the
concept of man as a biologic entity and of the city as a meaningful
In this way the strength of the existing
San Francisco Medical Center in the health sciences and the resources
of the city, construed as a laboratory for social and artistic study,
could be brought to bear upon a better understanding of the pressing
problems of modern man in his urban environment. The University
and the city could interpenetrate each other to their mutual benefit.
The San Francisco campus might thus attempt to effect a valid integration
of modern physics with the biological and social sciences.