When osteopathic schools were forming throughout the country in the 1890s, two students at the Northern Institute of Osteopathy in Minneapolis—the Rev. Mason Wiley Pressly and Oscar John Snyder—targeted Philadelphia as a future home for an osteopathic college.
While the “City of Brotherly Love” had a rich history of medicine, it had but one “osteopathist” by the time Drs. Pressly and Snyder graduated in 1898 and 1899, respectively. The two doctors of osteopathy (DOs) followed through with their vision, incorporating Philadelphia College and Infirmary of Osteopathy (PCIO) on January 24, 1899. They rented two rooms in the Stephen Girard Building at 21 South 12th Street—the first of many homes for the College—and opened their doors to students and patients.
In September 1899, the first PCIO degree was awarded to a transfer student; the first PCIO “class,” comprised of one woman and one MD, graduated in February 1900. It was not long before the early graduates formed an alumni association. By the end of the first year, the College outgrew its space in the Stephen Girard Building. The academic year beginning February 1, 1900, commenced in PCIO’s second Center City location: the newly built Witherspoon Building at Juniper and Walnut Streets. From 1900 to 1903, PCIO occupied the entire south side of the sixth floor with classrooms, clinical facilities and laboratories.
