History of Tufts School of Medicine

The original Tufts School of Medicine building in 1893

1893

Tufts College Medical School opens at 188 Boylston Street in Boston. The first-year class is more than 25 percent women.

1894

The Boston Dispensary—the city’s oldest hospital, founded by Paul Revere and Sam Adams—and Suffolk Dispensary become the first teaching affiliates.

Tufts School of Medicine fourth building in 1901

1900

After a stopover at the corner of Rutland and Shawmut avenues, Tufts College Medical School moves to 416 Huntington Avenue. The cost of the building and land was $167,000.

1905

Josefa ZaRratt, M1905, one of the first African-American women admitted to medical school at Tufts, graduates.

1929

The Boston Dispensary, Boston Floating Hospital (founded in 1894), and the Trustees of Tufts College form an alliance to establish the New England Medical Center.

1931

The first regional medical program in the country brings physicians and patients from rural Maine to New England Medical Center and sends students and faculty to Maine hospitals.

1943

In the middle of World War II, four out of five students are funded by the government and wear either an Army or Navy uniform.

1948

Samuel Proger is appointed chair of the Department of Medicine at Tufts and physician-in-chief at the New England Medical Center; he held both positions until 1971.

1949

The school renovates former garment factories at 120 and 136 Harrison Avenue for its new home.

1954

Tufts College Medical School becomes the Tufts University School of Medicine and Posner Hall dormitory opens.

1957

Tufts University School of Medicine's affiliation with St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center starts.

1965

The Tufts-sponsored Columbia Point Health Center—the country’s first community health center—opens at Columbia Point in Boston. A second site in Mississippi follows in 1967.

1970

South Cove building is bought for research, and affiliation with Maine Medical Center begins.

1980

The Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences opens with Dr. Murray Blair as dean. The next year, Tufts Associated Health Plan is founded by the Department of Community Health.

Med students attending a lecture in the DeBlois auditorium in the 1980s

1985

The Center for Medical Education building opens at 145 Harrison Ave, housing a modern library and classrooms.

1986

Problem-Based Learning and Selectives are introduced into the curriculum and MD/MPH degree program is established.

1994–5

The independent MPH program is launched.

Medicine students setting up partitions at the Sharewood Project

1997

Medical students start the Sharewood Project, our student-run educational and health program that offers free services to patients from under-resourced settings.

2003

Tufts-trained doctor Roderick MacKinnon, M82, H02, shares in the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the selectivity and structure of ion channels.

2008

Tufts University School of Medicine and Maine Medical Center partner on the Maine Track MD program and Tufts forms the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI).

2012

Physician Assistant program launches.

Michael Jaharis Jr., M87P, H15, Anatomy Laboratory

2017

The state-of-the-art Michael Jaharis Jr., M87P, H15, Anatomy Laboratory opens, made possible by a $15 million gift from the Jaharis Family Foundation.

2019

Tufts University removed the Sackler name from all School of Medicine programs and facilities.

2020

Doctor of Physical Therapy program in Boston launches.

2022

Doctor of Physical Therapy program in Phoenix launches.

2023

The Camilla Bessey Thompson and Paul D. Thompson, M.D., Clinical Skills and Simulation Center, a new 15,000-square-foot training facility, opens at 136 Harrison Ave. Boston.