GALVESTON — Even among the stock of Victorian architecture on Galveston’s east end, the Ashbel Smith Building stands out, commanding attention with its deep red hue from roof to foundation.
More affectionately, and widely, known as Old Red, it’s the University of Texas Medical Branch’s oldest campus building.
First-year medical students took initial steps toward their profession through Old Red’s doors, when the building held the gross anatomy lab and a lecture amphitheater off and on after construction finished in 1891.
The lab’s high ceiling and windows, more than 500 jars of human specimens and classically designed, steeply sloped teaching amphitheater give the building an overwhelming sense of history.
Now, Old Red sits empty.
This year, students will take their anatomy dissection lab in a different setting.
Hurricane Ike damaged most campus buildings, hospitals and clinics. Old Red sustained foundation damage and was not repaired in time for student orientation this week. The lab now is held in the school’s pharmacology building on Market and 11th streets.
Aside from the lab and amphitheater, Old Red housed the Institute for Medical Humanities, registrar’s office and plaster-cast busts of medical pioneers, including Marie Curie and Louis Pasteur.
“Anatomy is a traditional mark of entry into medical school,” Dr. Steve Lieberman, vice dean for academic affairs, said.
From a historical standpoint, professors will miss working in Old Red; however, most think a move to more modern accommodations was overdue.
Dr. Brian Miller, co-director of the gross anatomy and radiology course, taught in Old Red from 1986 until last year.
Miller said the lab’s situation in a more modern building means better lighting and ventilation. Because of its age, Old Red had structural integrity issues. It was not unusual for birds to get in or for rain to leak through the roof.
“My understanding is that the lab won’t be moved back there,” Miller said. “It’s not adequate for modern-day chemistry usage. It barely met those standards when it was used as a teaching lab.”
Old Red could not house the anatomy lab continuously in the past because of those design issues.
University officials have discussed transforming Old Red’s third floor into a museum to preserve the anatomy lab’s history, but no plans have been confirmed, said Dr. Garland D. Anderson, executive vice president for academic affairs and dean of the School of Medicine.
Anderson said the lab was almost a functioning museum itself, with the array of jarred specimens, some dating back to the 1960s. The adjacent auditorium would house lectures once it was restored. Old Red’s first floor has been discussed as potentially housing meeting rooms.
In exchange for a modern facility, Lieberman said the unfortunate drawback to moving out of Old Red is the sense of history new medical students will miss once class begins.
Dr. Courtney Townsend, chairman of the department of surgery, graduated from medical branch in 1969, where he then served his residency.
Townsend agreed Old Red was not fit to house a teaching lab, but he hoped it could be restored for some other use.
“UTMB survived through the 1900 Storm, and for a long time, this was the only medical school in Texas,” Townsend said. “Old Red is an icon for the essence of UTMB’s duration for the entire state.”
