Building 40 (Army Medical School)

The main entrance is located in the center of the crossbar of the H and the end elevations of both projecting wings are elaborately finished.

Four pairs of giant order Tuscan engaged columns ornament the monumental pedimented pavilion that houses the main entrance and a large stone cartouche, bearing the caduceus symbol of the U.S. Army Medical Corps, is mounted in the center of the parapet.

The entire building is now (2009) vacant and in bad condition, with many broken windows and evidence of water damage on the interior.

The outward-facing front elevation of each wing consists of four bays, each containing groupings of three windows, on either side of a projecting five-bay central pavilion that contains the main entrance.

Recessed metal panels tie the eight-pane metal-framed casement windows on the first, second, and third levels into the same kind of vertical grouping found on the original building.

The legend among the WRAIR staff was that in the months before the US entry into World War II, when President Franklin Roosevelt wanted to have military and cabinet meetings away from the eyes of the press and public, he would do so there.

For many years before WRAIR’s move to Forest Glen, two celebrated oil paintings by illustrator Dean Cornwell hung in this conference room: Beaumont and St. Martin (1939) and Conquerors of Yellow Fever (1941).