Having grown to be the largest cluster of public health scholars in Canada, the school was revitalized in 2008 with the support of a major gift from the Dalla Lana family.

One of the earliest recorded hygiene instructors was William Coverton, who taught sanitary sciences in the Trinity University medical school from 1878–1891.

[2]: 7  At the competing Toronto School of Medicine in the mid 1880s, William Oldright, a physician and sanitarian who served as the first chair of the Ontario Provincial Board of Health, lectured in the sanitary sciences.

[2]: 8  During his tenure, Oldright established a museum of hygiene in the basement of the medical building that showcased technological developments ranging from sewage management to ventilation, water testing and personal protective equipment for workers.

[2]: 8 [3]: 9 Upon Oldright's retirement, John Amyot, a bacteriologist affiliated with the provincial health laboratory, was appointed chair of the Department of Hygiene and Sanitary Science in Faculty of Medicine.

[3]: 8  FitzGerald's idea won approval from the Board of Governors and, with the support of Amyot, he began in 1914 to develop space in the medical building made available by the decommissioning of Oldright's museum.

The rapid expansion of the antitoxin program quickly overwhelmed the capacity of Fenton's barn and the generously donated stables of the decommissioned Ontario Veterinary College buildings on Temperance Street, presenting an urgent space need.

[2]: 21 [3]: 5 In 1915, the chair of the Ontario chapter of the Red Cross, Colonel Albert Gooderham, was tapped by the university to help address the issue of space.

The chair of the Rockefeller Foundation, Simon Flexner, attended the opening ceremony in 1917, giving the evening address in Convocation Hall.

[3]: 67  Given the high demand and the production needs (and following the recent construction of the Hart House student center), additional space was obtained in the newly vacated campus YMCA building.

At the same time, FitzGerald expanded the DPH curriculum beyond microbiology and sanitation to include preventive medicine, epidemiology, industrial hygiene and nutrition.