Faculty and Students of Rush Medical College in the ruins of the college after Great Chicago Fire, 1871
1 2022-03-02T20:23:36+00:00 Kate Flynn 7a93418b93b9db509597a67ae6311be88dcb38d6 530 1 At the time of the Great Chicago Fire, October 1871, Rush Medical College stood at Grand Avenue and Indiana Street (now Grand and Dearborn.) The Rush Medical College building was destroyed completely in the Great Chicago Fire. Students had just completed their first week of courses the Friday before the Fire. After the Fire, Rush Medical College relocated to the West Side of Chicago to be near Cook County Hospital, which had just moved to Harrison and Wood Streets. Rush opened a new building on the northeast corner of the intersection in 1875. Today's Rush University Medical Center campus still borders Wood Street and spreads east. From the Rush University Medical Center Archives, Group Photograph Collection, #P3830. plain 2022-03-02T20:23:36+00:00 Great Chicago Fire Chicago Ill. 1871 P3830_Group_FacultyStudents-RMC-ChicagoFireRuins,1871-midres.jpg In Copyright. For more information, please email: rush_archives@rush.edu Rush University Medical Center (Chicago Ill.) Photograph Collection, Rush University Medical Center Archives 1871 Rush University Medical Center Archives River North, West Side Kate Flynn 7a93418b93b9db509597a67ae6311be88dcb38d6This page is referenced by:
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Rush Medical College Leaves River North after Great Chicago Fire
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A New Beginning for Chicago's First Medical College After 1871
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2022-03-03T18:05:03+00:00
North Side
Chicago's first medical school, Rush Medical College, opened its first permanent structure in 1844, at Grand Avenue and Indiana Street (now Dearborn Avenue) in what is now the River North neighborhood.
When the Great Chicago Fire broke out on a Sunday evening, October 8, 1871, Rush Medical College students had just completed their first week of courses that Friday. Rush's building was destroyed completely during the disaster. Some Rush students fled the city with only the shirts on their backs, losing everything they had brought with them to start their school year. Lectures resumed that Friday in Cook County Hospital, but only forty students out of about two hundred managed to attend. Eventually, one hundred more students were able to return, though almost a quarter of the class never came back after experiencing such devastating loss. Medical colleges in other states telegraphed, offering their support for any Rush students, stating they would be "received gratuitously."
After the Fire, Rush Medical College relocated to the West Side of Chicago to be near Cook County Hospital, which had just moved to Harrison and Wood Streets. Rush opened a new building on the northeast corner of that intersection in 1875, where today's Rush University Medical Center campus still stands. The West Side's Illinois Medical District grew out of this community of neighboring universities, hospitals, and other health care institutions, making it the largest urban medical district in the United States.
In 2016, Rush opened a new health center at Grand and Dearborn, Rush River North, which brings a Rush presence back to its original location in Chicago.
