25 September 1906
The formal dedication ceremonies of the new Medical School buildings spanned two days and were held on both the new Longwood campus as well as the Cambridge campus. The dedication itself was held on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 25th, on the front steps of the Administration Building, with the crowd assembled on the Quad below.
There were many distinguished delegates, alumni, and visitors in attendance, including J. Pierpont Morgan. Following J. Collins Warren's opening address, the architect of the new campus, Charles Allerton Coolidge of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, turned over the keys to President Eliot. In his formal acceptance, Eliot gave credit to "the constructive imagination and indomitable zeal of a few of the University's teachers of medicine; secondly, to the discerning and liberal acceptance by a few rich men and women of a veritable opportunity to do some lasting and pervasive good … thirdly, to the accumulated influence in favor of the medical profession which has been exerted in Boston and its vicinity for more than a hundred years …. These superb buildings, therefore, are an expression of the intelligence and public spirit of many generations, and of the ardent hope of the present generation for a new relief of man's estate." The dean, William L. Richardson, and two members of the medical faculty, Thomas Dwight and Frederick Cheever Shattuck, also addressed the company on the history of the school and the future needs of its clinics and laboratories.
Before tea was served to the guests and the buildings opened, President Eliot pronounced the formal words of dedication: "I devote these buildings, and their successors in coming time, to the teaching of the medical and surgical arts which combat disease and death, alleviate injuries, and defend and assure private and public health; and to the pursuit of the biological and medical sciences, on which depends all progress in the medical and surgical arts and preventive medicine."