History of Saint Louis University

1842

Back Forward

Home

Saint Louis University
A Pioneer in Medical and Legal Education

Less than 25 years after its founding, Saint Louis University had opened both law and medical programs. As early as 1835, Father Peter J. Verhaegen, the University’s president, was discussing with several prominent St. Louis physicians the possibility of forming a medical department for Saint Louis University. This possibility became a reality when the medical department of the University presented its first formal lecture in March, 1842. The following year the medical department graduated six students.

The first Medical School of Saint Louis University,
located on Washington at Tenth Street, 1842

The law department was organized in 1842 and held its first sessions in November, 1843, making it the oldest law school west of the Mississippi. Unfortunately, the medical department separated from the University in 1855 due in part to anti-Catholic agitation against the University. (It would eventually become the medical school of Washington University) while the law department closed in 1847.

Saint Louis University would reopen both of these departments as "schools" early in the 20th century. Even though the early medical and law departments did not last, their short existence is indicative of the Jesuit focus on practical and socially responsible education.

The first Law School of Saint Louis University