NYMC sits on land known as the Grasslands Reservation in Valhalla, NY. The area has a history dating back to the U.S. pre-revolutionary times.
History of Grasslands Reservation
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New York Medical College (NYMC) sits on land known as the Grasslands Reservation in Valhalla, NY. The area has a history dating back to the U.S. pre-revolutionary times as an army post. The first occupants of the area were Revolutionary War Captain Thaddeus Avery, Col. James Hammond, and Joseph Paulding. Following the Revoluationary War the Hammond family bought the land; they held on to it until the early 1900s.
Westchester County purchased the Grasslands Reservation in 1915 to house services to the public such as an almshouse and a hospital. In 1917, the County government allowed the U.S. Army to use county buildings to set up an Army hospital for treating troops affected by the Spanish Influenza epidemic during World War I. The county began caring for those suffering from several prevalent diseases of the 1920s and 1930s. Entire buildings were devoted to treating both adult and child patients with tuberculosis, and the center eventually became a center for treating victims of other great medical illnesses such as polio, scarlet fever and diphtheria during the early and mid 20th century.
While the College's Sunshine Cottage previously served as the pediatric tuberculosis hospital, Munger Pavilion served as the adult tuberculosis hospital building. Munger Pavilion is named after Claude W. Munger, M.D., director of Grasslands Hospital from 1924-1937.
Alumni House
The Alumni House is important technologically, architecturally, and historically. The structure is an unusual example of the use of poured concrete for residential use which was constructed and occupied by prominent county residents.
The site of the house has a history dating back to pre-revolutionary times. The first occupant of a dwelling on this site was believed to be Captain Thaddeus Avery. Avery, a farmer, was instrumental in hiding money needed to pay Washington’s troops. In later years, the poured concrete structure was occupied by Westchester County Commissioners of Public Welfare, V. Everit Macy and Miss Ruth Taylor among others, and became known as the “Commissioner’s House.” The Strawson family was the last to occupy the house from 1944-1960. Stanton M. Strawson was Commissioner of Public Welfare for the County from 1950-1960. After that period, the “Strawson House” stood abandoned for many years. The building had been scheduled for demolition by the Department of Public Works and in the interim, was used by the Fire Safety Training Unit for practice in putting out fires.
After hearing of the demolition plans in 1979, the School of Medicine Alumni Association initiated a campaign to restore the building. By 1981, the Association had raised $75,000. On January 29, 1982, the Alumni House was leased to New York Medical College by Westchester County. On December 15, 1982, the Alumni Association presented a check for $230,000 to College President John J. Connolly. The campaign had met its goal and the effort to raise funds continued towards the restoration effort. Renovation began in June 1983. The building was restored as faithfully as possible in consultation with the County Planning Department. The front and back porticos were added and an open porch was enclosed for the boardroom. With the restoration completed, the dedication of the House took place on June 2, 1984.
The Alumni House is now an elegant venue for meetings and events.
Sunshine Cottage
Welcome to New York Medical College and Sunshine Cottage. Grasslands Hospital, the predecessor of the Westchester Medical Center, opened Sunshine Cottage as a thirty-five bed children's tuberculosis hospital in 1931. The name Sunshine Cottage symbolized health and happiness, and ref erred to the typical treatment regimen of rest, fresh air, and sunshine. The noted architectural team of Walker and Gillette designed this building.
The fanciful animals in the surrounding fences, the motifs of the rising sun and nature scenes over the windows and on the pediments, the rabbit over the door, and the animal sculptures that formerly resided on the pillars of the fences were designed to brighten the lives and speed the recovery of sick children. They remind the health care providers of today that one must always treat the whole patient: not only the disease but also the patient's spirit and attitude. We hope the animal and nature images and statues you see on and surrounding this building remind you that, no matter how technology in health care evolves, the values of care and compassion remain at the core of what we do. New York Medical College
Pediatric Medical Care in Sunshine Cottage
During the Great Depression and into the 1950s, medical care was provided to children with polio and tuberculosis in Sunshine Cottage. The building housed boys’ and girls’ wards for polio patients on the first floor and tuberculosis patients were treated on the second floor. Before the successful clinical trials of the Salk and Sabine polio vaccines and the discovery of antibiotics effective against tuberculosis by Waksman and others, doctors and patients battled these diseases with the diagnostic tests and forms of therapy of their time, such as: meticulous auscultation and physical examination, braces, iron lungs, gastric lavage, bronchoscopy, bed rest and crushing the phrenic nerve. Other treatments included indoor sun lamps and outdoor gardening for the perceived healing power of light and “putting the lung at rest” by filling the thoracic cavity with ping pong balls. Children confined to protracted periods of bed rest often watched prisoners from nearby jails care for the Cottage’s grounds. Improved nutrition, housing and public sanitation, along with the progress of biomedical science, has rendered the suffering of these children a thing of the past while reminding us that the primacy of caring for children will never end—a tradition proudly carried on by the Department of Pediatrics at New York Medical College.
Turkey Statues
These two appealing turkey sculptures are original architectural details that stood guard on the stone pillars in front of the Grasslands Hospital Sunshine Cottage. This pediatric tuberculosis sanatorium was built in 1931 and is the earliest incarnation of what is now New York Medical College’s Administration Building.
The building, designed by the noted architectural team of Walker and Gillette, featured statues of animals, birds, and woodland motifs, including the White Rabbit from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland above the main door and a rising sun on the portico. These were all placed to brighten the spirits and speed the recovery of the sick children within and offer them a pleasing diversion from their illness and confinement.
In 1784, Benjamin Franklin commented on two options for a bird to represent the United States, the bald eagle and the turkey: “For the truth the turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America...He is besides, though a little vain and silly, a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British guards who should presume to invade his farm yard with a red coat on.”These turkey statues were refurbished and replaced in 2017 as part of a campus-wide effort to restore its historical treasures. Today, the sculpted turkeys, and all of the building’s fanciful creatures represent NYMC’s commitment to caring for the complete person and quietly convey the important message to treat the whole patient — body and spirit.
Frog and Fish Footman Statues
These whimsical and appealing sculptures are original architectural details from the Grasslands Hospital Sunshine Cottage, a pediatric tuberculosis sanatorium built on this site in 1931 and the earliest incarnation of what is now New York Medical College’s Administration Building.
The building, designed by the noted architectural team of Walker and Gillette, featured statues of animals and woodland motifs, including the White Rabbit above the main door and a rising sun on the pediments, all in place to brighten the spirits and speed the recovery of the sick children within and offer them a pleasing diversion from their illness and confinement. Present here are characters from Chapter 6 of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the frog-footman and fish-footman, who offered Alice laughter and mirth and did the same for the children of Sunshine Cottage. They continue to spread cheer and merriment today.
The frog-footman and fish-footman first came to life on a summer afternoon in 1862 when Oxford mathematician and logician Charles Lutwidge Dodson (1832-98) spun a tale for three little girls: Lorina, Edith and Alice Liddell. The world then met the footmen in 1865 when Dodson, using the pen name Lewis Carroll, published his fantastical book—just five years after our founder, William Cullen Bryant, opened the doors of New York Medical College. Today, these fanciful creatures represent our College’s commitment to caring for the complete person and quietly convey the important message to treat the whole patient—body and spirit.
7 Dana Road & Wynder's Institute for Cancer Prevention
Seven Dana Road is the home of New York Medical College’s BioInc@NYMC, a biotechnology incubator, and Clinical Skills and Disaster Medicine Training Center. NYMC acquired the building in 2005 and renovations commenced in 2012. The building formerly housed the Institute for Cancer Prevention, originally founded by Ernst Wynder, M.D. (1922-1999) in 1969 as the American Health Foundation, which focused on researching the cause and prevention of major chronic diseases.
Wynder, a pioneer cancer researcher and epidemiologist, is known for his landmark research with Evarts Graham on the association between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. Seeking an integrated cancer prevention center, a novel idea at the time, Wynder moved the facility to Valhalla in 1975. He named it the Naylor Dana Institute to honor the Eleanor Naylor Dana Foundation which contributed funds, along with the National Cancer Institute and private donors, towards its construction.
In 2002, the facility was renamed the Institute for Cancer Prevention (IFCP) to more accurately reflect its focus on preventive medicine. Under Wynder’s leadership the IFCP became exclusively devoted to cancer prevention research, publishing more than 3,000 papers.
Dr. Wynder, a champion of public health, extolled the importance of the role of education in preventive medicine and made it part of the IFCP’s mission. He developed outreach programs and school curricula which promoted personal responsibility as an important component of prevention. His involvement in health policy and his active lobbying of government and industry led to legislation promoting disease prevention.
Plane Tree of Hippocrates
A gift from the Greek Dodecanese island of Cos, historic birthplace of Hippocrates, the father of western medicine, the seed of the NYMC Plane Tree (platanus orientalis) comes from the Tree of Hippocrates under which Hippocrates is said to have conducted his medical classes some 25 centuries ago.
In 1960, seeds of Tree of Hippocrates were given to each medical school in the U.S.; one of them being New York Medical College during the NYMC centennial celebration in 1960. It was planted outside of the main building in Manhattan at 106th Street and 5th Avenue. When the College moved to Westchester, the tree came also and to this day stands just south of the Basic Sciences Building.