Salk Hall

Salk Hall at the University of Pittsburgh is an Art Deco landmark whose history connects public health, medical education, and Jonas Salk’s vaccine research. Completed in 1941 as the 225-bed Pittsburgh Municipal Hospital for Contagious Diseases, it was built through Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Public Works Administration to treat and isolate communicable diseases. As antibiotics reduced the need for quarantine hospitals, the building was remodeled and acquired by the university in 1957, when it was renamed for Jonas Salk, who had conducted research on the first polio vaccine in a basement laboratory there. Later renovations adapted it for dental, pharmacy, research, and museum uses.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania · United States