Shortly before the United States entered World War I, PCIO moved into new quarters
in Philadelphia’s Fairmount section. A $60,000 fundraising campaign enabled the College
to purchase its first buildings, including a hospital. The Reyburn Mansion, located
at 19th and Spring Garden Streets, became the cornerstone of the campus. The home
had belonged to John Edgar Reyburn, mayor of Philadelphia. With the design services
of Philadelphia architects DeArmond, Ashmead & Bickley, the brick and terra-cotta
mansion was transformed into classrooms and laboratories.
The College erected a three-story, 52-bed hospital building to the rear of the property in 1918. This was the first osteopathic hospital to be built with funds contributed by the public. It boasted a considerable surgical amphitheater.
In 1919, the College acquired two adjacent townhouses located to the east of the mansion—one became the College annex, Dispensary and Clinic, and the other the Nurses’ Home for the College’s new Training School for Nurses.
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Digest, the magazine for alumni and friends of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, is published by the Office of Marketing and Communications. The magazine reports on osteopathic and other professional trends of interest to alumni of the College’s Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) and graduate programs at PCOM, PCOM Georgia and PCOM South Georgia.
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