Salk Hall facts for kids
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Pennsylvania Historical Marker
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Salk Hall is named after Jonas Salk who conducted history-making research there. Pitt Stadium, seen in the background to the right, was torn down in 1999 and is now the site of the Petersen Events Center.
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 Location in Pittsburgh
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| Location | Oakland neighborhood, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
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| Coordinates | 40°26′34″N 79°57′46″W / 40.442710°N 79.962914°W |
| Built/founded | 1940-1941 |
| Architect | Richard Irving and Theodore Eicholz |
| Architectural style(s) | Art Deco |
| Governing body/ |
University of Pittsburgh |
| PHMC dedicated | April 12, 2005 |
| PHLF designated | 1972 |
Jonas Salk Hall is a very important building at the University of Pittsburgh. It's a historic landmark in Pennsylvania and for the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation. The building has a cool Art Deco style. It's named after Jonas Salk, a famous scientist. He did his amazing research on the first polio vaccine right here, in a lab in the basement!
History of Salk Hall
The main part of Salk Hall was built in 1941. It used to be the Pittsburgh Municipal Hospital for Contagious Diseases. The university gave the city the land for it. Richard Irving and Theodore Eicholz designed the building.
The hospital was a project by President Roosevelt's Public Works Administration. This program helped create jobs during a tough time. The hospital had 225 beds and was meant for people with diseases that could spread easily.
But then, new medicines called antibiotics came along. They made it much easier to treat these diseases. So, the hospital wasn't needed as much. It became too expensive for the city to keep running.
In 1949, the building started to change. It became a temporary home for Pitt's School of Public Health. In 1957, the University of Pittsburgh officially bought the hospital. They renamed it Jonas Salk Hall. For a while, students even lived on the upper floors!
Later, in 1961-1962, Pitt changed the building again. It became the home for the School of Dental Medicine and the School of Pharmacy.
Salk Hall Annex
The Salk Hall Annex is a big addition to the building. It was finished in 1967. The architectural firm Deeter, Ritchey, and Sippel designed it. This part of the building cost over $5 million to build.
Today, the Annex is a main entrance for Salk Hall. It also holds the dental clinics, where students learn to treat patients.
In 2010, plans were announced for another big addition and renovation. This project would add a new research tower. It would create more space for labs and free up room in the original building for classrooms and offices.
Dental Museum
Did you know Salk Hall has a museum inside? There's a dental museum on the first floor. It's in the reception area.
This museum shows off many old dental tools and items. You can see a dental chair from around 1910. There's also an X-ray machine and a cabinet for instruments from the 1920s. It's like stepping back in time to see how dentists used to work!
Pharmacy Museum
Salk Hall also has another cool museum! It's called the Elmer H. Grimm Sr. Pharmacy Museum. This museum opened in 1996. You can find it on the fourth floor.
The pharmacy museum has lots of old pharmacy items. It shows drug products, equipment, and other things from the early 1900s. You can see special carved pieces called finials. These often sat above doors in old pharmacies. There's also an old-fashioned powder mill and a konseal machine.
