The Texas Medical Center was created through generous philanthropy. Back in the 1930s, a businessman named Monroe Dunaway Anderson was thinking of good and beneficial ways to use his money to help mankind. With the support of his trustees and his interests in health and education, they came up with the idea that a great medical center should be built in Houston, next to Hermann Hospital. The idea was to have a medical center that consisted of many different hospitals, academic institutions and various support organizations. Land was made available without cost, to institutions so that they would come and build here. Seed money was also provided, and people from all over Texas were asked to help fund it.

In 1936, Anderson founded the M.D. Anderson Foundation with an endowment of $300,000. Anderson, John Henry Freeman and Colonel William B. Bates are the trustees of this endowment. The fund's first gift was a check of $1,000 to the Junior League Eye Fund for eyeglasses. A little over two years after establishing M.D. Anderson Foundation, Anderson died, leaving $19 million to the organization, the largest charitable fund ever created in Texas. With Anderson's endowment, the trustees reached an agreement to develop facilities for the average person.

In 1941, the state legislature voted to grant the University of Texas $500,000 for the purpose of starting a cancer research hospital. The M.D. Anderson Foundation then took its first major action by proposing to match the state's gift and to supply the necessary land, provided the hospital was located in Houston. In 1942, the offer was accepted and the projected institution was called M.D.Anderson Hospital for Cancer Research.

In 1943, the M.D.Anderson Foundation offered Baylor University College of Medicine, then in Dallas, Texas, $1 million for construction of a facility and $100,000 a year for the next ten years if Baylor would come to Houston. The Houston Chamber of Commerce added $500,000 to the bid. The offer was accepted.

Baylor University College of Medicine under construction, 1946.

By 1954, the Texas Medical Center had eleven institutions: four hospitals, two children's hospitals, a university, a library, a speech and hearing center, a dental school, and an overall planning and coordinating group.

Texas Medical Center with downtown Houston in the distance, 1950s.

Throughout the years (see detailed chronology), the Texas Medical Center has undergone massive development with the addition of many major hospitals and medical research centers. The Medical Center's momentous growth has paralleled Houston's. Today, the Texas Medical Center is growing daily with acquisition of land and new buildings. Many important Houston names such as Anderson, Hermann, Cullen, Jesse Jones, Ben Taub, Hobby, Jaworski, Scurlock, and Weingarten have been integrally associated with the Texas Medical Center. In a few short decades it has grown into one of the world's finest medical complexes. The fusion of three different worlds - those of the businessperson, the healer, and the scientist - has produced one of the most remarkable achievements in medical history.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmc-history.html