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Throughout its long history, the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) has seen many other Baltimore colleges and universities open and close. Some of these schools simply shuttered their doors, while others merged with UMB. This post highlights the Maryland Medical College (MMC) of Baltimore, a school that did not merge with UMB; however, some of its records are housed in the HSHSL’s Historical Collections, which allows us to continue telling the MMC’s story.

The MMC was established by the Maryland legislature in 1898 and opened on September 1, 1898, on West Baltimore Street. The school was founded on the belief that students would retain information better with shorter vacations; this meant the MMC’s academic year would be eight months. Students would be required to attend three years of study before graduating instead of the more popular four-years of study at six months per year. The costs for attendance were a $5 matriculation fee, $50 for tuition for the full course of instruction, and lab fees ranging from $5-10 per lab. The first dean was Dr. B. Purcell Muse, a 1888 graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S), Baltimore. By the end of the school’s first academic year, 17 doctors graduated. 

The MMC building at 1114-1120 West Baltimore Street had a first-floor, free dispensary, open Monday to Saturday 12 to 2pm. Dr. E.A. Munoz, a 1889 graduate of Maryland College of Pharmacy and 1892 graduate of the P&S, oversaw the dispensary. On the fourth floor of the building was a 24-bed Temperance Hospital. The incorporators of the MMC, Drs. Joseph H. Branham, John B. Schwatka, B. Purcell Muse, J. William Funck, Edward A. Munoz, Frederick Caruthers, Henry M. Baxley, Haughton Baxley, G. Milton Linthicum, W. Wayland Frames—all graduates of Baltimore medical and pharmacy schools as well as former faculty at the University of Baltimore School of Medicine—believed that alcohol use for medical treatment, which was a common practice for a variety of medical ailments, was causing higher numbers of alcohol consumption and dependance in the country. They opened the National Temperance Hospital modeled after the London Temperance Hospital, where alcohol would not be prescribed except in extreme cases; instead, the doctors would use strychnia, aromatic spirits of ammonia, digitalis, ether, and diffusive stimulants. The MMC also removed alcohol as a treatment from its curriculum.

In addition to the dispensary and hospital, the W. Baltimore Street building housed the west branch of the Y.M.C.A. In the early years of the school, student members of the Y.M.C.A. could get tickets to attend lectures at the MMC for $2. Additionally, the Y.M.C.A. had a gymnasium allowing students a place to exercise and release some stress of academic coursework. The faculty of the school encouraged athletics among its students and throughout its brief history the MMC had football, baseball, and basketball teams.

Soon after the founding of the MMC, the students started their own journal, the Medical Observer of the Maryland Medical College. The journal was a twelve-page paper published throughout the year at a cost of $.10 per issue or $1 per year. The school also boasted an alumni association, which graduates, faculty, and students could join.

In 1901 the school purchased two additional buildings on the corner of Calhoun and Fayette Streets and the National Temperance Hospital became the Franklin Square Hospital. The hospital treated both private and free patients; private patients paid between $5 and $20 per week for board, while free patients agreed to have MMC students as physicians. The Franklin Square Hospital received a $1000 appropriation from the state of Maryland. The new hospital opened the Frankling Square Hospital Nurses Training School. The same year, the MMC opened the West-End Maternite Hospital of Baltimore at 112 N. Calhoun Street to treat women throughout their pregnancies. Tuition for the MMC went up to $65 per year.

In March 1909, the Baltimore medical schools were visited for review by Dr. Abraham Flexner for the Carnegie Foundation. The “Flexner Report” as it is known was released in 1910 and obliterated five of the six medical schools in the city, claiming that Johns Hopkins Medical School alone was the only one qualified to continue teaching students. Flexner argued that the MMC was the “worst type of American Medical School,” claiming the school had nominal entrance requirements, a “wretchedly dirty” laboratory space, and a “foul” dissecting room. Additionally, the MMC was judged harshly for having no library, no museum, and no teaching accessories. Flexner argued that the MMC was accepting students who were failing out of other medical schools; a 1904 statistic supports this claim as of the 150 enrolled in the MMC, 104 were graduating seniors. Dr. W.S. Smith, dean of the MMC, was incensed calling the report “false and outrageous.” He believed Flexner was biased towards the private, endowed Johns Hopkins and claimed the closure of the other Baltimore medical schools would be harmful to those worthy students who could not afford the high cost of Hopkins.

Despite the 1910 Flexner Report, the MMC continued to offer medical instruction; for the 1910-11 academic year the length of medical education was extended from three to four years. The same year the school opened its doors to women; the first women, Alice Louise Hall and Amelia Elizabeth Link, graduated the following year.  In 1911, the school was looking to expand and purchased space to add onto the existing college building at 102 and 104 N. Calhoun Street. The MMC raised tuition to $125 per year for first- to third-year students and $100 per year for fourth year students in 1912. Unfortunately, the 1913 MMC commencement was the school’s last as it never opened for the 1913-14 academic year.

However, the school’s Franklin Square Hospital remained open under receivership and continued to operate a nurses training school. In 1957, the hospital purchased 41.5 acres in Baltimore County and moved to the location in 1964. In 1968, the Franklin Square Hospital Nurses Training School closed. In 1987, to continue operating the hospital joined with the Union Memorial Hospital forming the Helix Health System.

Unlike some of the other Baltimore medical schools and despite having initial discussions about mergers with the University of Maryland, the MMC did not become part of another institution. It shuttered its doors and sold the school building to support the Franklin Square Hospital. Records including the 1912 Collegian yearbook, 1898 to 1912 annual catalogs, and other ephemera are housed in the HSHSL Historical Collections.
_{References and Further Reading:}
^{Abraham, H.J. (1969). Extinct Medical Schools of Baltimore, Maryland. Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore.
“Ask college receiver.” (Nov 13 1912). The Sun. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Baltimore Sun. 
“A temperance hospital.” (Jun 26 1898). The Sun. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Baltimore Sun. 
“A temperance hospital.” (Aug 13 1898). The Sun. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Baltimore Sun. 
“Buys 14,000 Acres.” (Oct 4 1912). The Sun. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Baltimore Sun. 
“Flays Medical Schools.” (Jun 6, 1910). The Sun. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Baltimore Sun. 
The Collegian. (1912). Maryland Medical College of Baltimore. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10713/21734. 
“Maryland Medical College Baltimore, Maryland 1898-1913.” Lost Colleges. https://www.lostcolleges.com/maryland-medical-college. 
“Maryland Medical College of Baltimore.” (2018). Medicine in Maryland, 1752-1920. https://mdhistoryonline.net/2018/06/02/sch11/. 
Maryland Medical College of Baltimore Academic Catalogs, https://archive.hshsl.umaryland.edu/handle/10713/23602.} ,
^{“Scores Flexner report.” (Jun 7 1910). The Sun. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Baltimore Sun.}