In a recent wandering through the Alabama Mosaic digital collections I came across this aerial photograph of the Bryce Hospital campus and surrounding area. The description reads, "From a report submitted to Governor Chauncey Sparks on November 9, 1943, by the Tuscaloosa Chamber of Commerce's Committee for the Location and Establishment of a Four-Year Medical School for Alabama."
So what does all that mean?
In the early 1940's the state legislature began to look for a place to locate a four-year medical college. A two-year college already existed in Tuscaloosa, which meant that students had to leave the state to finish medical education. Naturally, the leaders in Tuscaloosa would want the school to remain there, and would promote Bryce as a large source of potential patients. However, the school ended up in Birmingham, where the huge Jefferson Hospital had opened in December 1939. The Medical College of Alabama's first four-year class began in September 1945.
The Alabama Insane Hospital opened in 1861, and Peter Bryce was chosen as first superintendent. He died in 1892 and in 1900 the facility was officially named after him. Bryce closed several years ago, and the campus was purchased by the University of Alabama in 2010. The site is undergoing major redevelopment and restoration.
Numerous photos related to Bryce have survived, and I explored a few of them in a 2016 blog post. I also wrote a "quick visit" blog post about Bryce in 2014.
Prominent in the background of this photo is the Black Warrior River.
Source: Alabama Dept of Archives & History
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