By Timothy G. Nutt
Out of the four previous locations of the UAMS College of Medicine, the site at Second and Sherman streets from 1890-1912 is the least known and discussed. However, this second building allowed the school to not only admit more students but provided much needed and improved facilities. The former Sperindio Hotel, which had housed the medical school since its founding in 1879, had served its purpose.
By the end of its first decade, medical school enrollment had increased so much that the aging facility had little room to accommodate the student population. Whereas enrollment for the 1879-1880 period—the school’s first academic year—was twenty, the beginning of the 1890-1891 school year saw 90 students enrolled. In addition to the cramped space, the former hotel needed repairs from years of deferred maintenance. While the Sperindio Hotel, located on Second Street between Louisiana and Main streets, was not the best-suited for a medical school, it nevertheless served well as an educational space. It was not conducive, though, to clinical practice. Because of this, students practiced their skills in the Fones Brothers Warehouse, located directly across the alley from school. This arrangement no longer was feasible, so the proprietors of the medical school (the eight original founders) began to look for another location.
In early 1890, the proprietors of the medical school began to look for other locations and they quietly sold the medical school building. With the attendance increasing each year, the eight founders saw a big return on their original investment of $5,000, since all the profits of the school went back to them. It would not be until 1911 that the medical school ceased to be a proprietary school and became an official division of the University of Arkansas.
The investors purchased property on the northeast corner of Second and Sherman streets for $2,000 and begun construction of the new medical school. When completed at a cost of $15,000 (over $500,000 in today’s money), the building was three stories high and measured 150 feet long by 150 feet wide. The building had amenities that the former building did not, such as a lecture hall and amphitheater. The building was completed before the beginning of the 1890-1891 school year. A few years later, the city hospital, known as the Logan H. Roots Memorial Hospital, opened next door, which provided clinical opportunities for the students. A private hospital, known through the years as the “University Hospital” and “Maternity Hospital”, also was constructed nearby. Beginning in 1892, the first floor of the medical school was converted to the Isaac Folsom Clinic, a free facility for indigent patients. Folsom, a prominent doctor from Lonoke, bequeathed part of his estate to the school to provide health care to the indigent residents of Little Rock. Later, in 1916, a larger Isaac Folsom Clinic was built directly behind the medical school building. By that time, though, the school had moved once again—this time to the former State Capitol (Old State House).
The medical school stayed at the Second and Sherman location until 1912. The building, though, continued to be utilized for lectures. The move in 1890 to larger facilities cemented the stability of the medical school, which had been in question for many years after its establishment in 1879. The move to the Second and Sherman building also showed that the medical school would continually expand its services in caring for the city’s—and later the state’s—citizens. That mission continues to the present.
Timothy G. Nutt is the Director of the UAMS Historical Research Center.