
In 1899, the oldest medical college in Missouri became part of the Department of Medicine at Washington University when the Missouri Medical College merged with WUSTL. In 1910, educator Abraham Flexner — a member of the research staff of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching — authored a report titled “Medical Education in the United States and Canada,” which found Washington University’s medical department “inadequate in every essential respect.” One year later, the University forged agreements linking the medical school and its faculty with St. Louis Children’s and Barnes hospitals. Part of the merger agreement included the University building both “a first class hospital at a cost of not less than six hundred thousand dollars” and “first class medical school buildings at a cost of not less than two hundred thousand dollars.” The complex was dedicated April 29-30, 1915, when the above photo of the Medical Campus was taken.