Before she became a Drexel faculty member, Dana Farabaugh, MD, senior associate dean of medical education and professor of obstetrics and gynecology, was a Drexel medical student. It’s no surprise that the Queen Lane Campus, where she began her studies, evokes nostalgia. “Teaching classes in the same rooms where you sat as a student was a unique experience. I’ll miss that,” she says.

Relocating the medical school to University City was not simply a geographical shift. It was a separation — particularly for faculty — from accumulated memories, not to mention from a powerful campus history. The Queen Lane Campus was originally home to the Medical College of Pennsylvania, founded in the 1850s as the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania, the first degree-granting medical school for women in the world. Also central to the campus’s history was Hahnemann University, founded in 1848 as the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania, the country’s first medical school focused on homeopathy. In 2002, halfway through Farabaugh’s time as a student, Drexel officially assumed management of the two entities, giving rise to Drexel University College of Medicine.

Preserving this groundbreaking health science history is top of mind for Margaret Graham, director of the Legacy Center Archives and Special Collections. Located at the Queen Lane Campus, it houses the school’s records and heritage. “From a historical perspective, the relocation is less about moving away from Queen Lane and more about bringing the history of the school to the Health Science Building,” she explains. “My goal is to keep that history visible so it’s not lost.”

To that end, she and others in the Legacy Center were hard at work over the summer creating a temporary mural project, currently on display on the first, second, third, ninth and 12th floors of the building. While there are no immediate plans for the Legacy Center to join in the move to University City, Graham looks forward to partnering with a diverse advisory group as well as others in the College of Medicine community to create a more permanent archival installation.

Depending on who you ask, moving into the 460,000-square-foot building was either seamless or logistically complex. For faculty, crates were delivered to Queen Lane offices, and essential files and computers were loaded in. A few days later, everything was neatly delivered to newly furnished offices in the Health Sciences Building.

For Tiffany Davis, EdD, director of the Clinical Education Assessment Center (CEAC) and Standardized Patient program, the move was years in the making. With oversight of the operation and staffing of mock exam rooms in which students practice their clinical skills, Davis was on the building’s Planning and Building Committee for two years leading up to the move. She and her team wanted to ensure the new CEAC training space was custom designed to meet students’ needs. While most furniture is new, some chairs, exam tables, and other supplies and medical equipment had to be packed up, carted downtown and rearranged in the CEAC’s new space. Now, students have a total of 18 exam rooms at their disposal, up from 13 at Queen Lane, where they often had to share space with the Simulation Center. The room increase, not to mention their modern, bright appearance and improved air circulation, are significant improvements, Davis says. Indeed, the massive windows channeling ample natural light are routinely cited as a welcome feature of the Health Sciences Building.

Another notable attribute of the location, which students are quick to cite: Easy access to an array of food options, including a Dunkin’ Donuts beside the Health Sciences Building’s entrance and an airy café just inside its lobby. Still, Rowe remembers experiencing some degree of culture shock, transitioning from a homey, suburban campus teeming with inviting flower beds to a vibrant metro area. It wasn’t long before he was won over. With a background in physical therapy and an interest in pursuing orthopedic surgery, Rowe is particularly impressed by the new anatomy lab and bone room, both on the 12th floor. Where Queen Lane’s dissection space was basement-level, the Health Sciences Building’s is light-filled and capacious, with oversized touch screens that allow for intricate 3D dissections. Beside the lab, a bone room filled with 3D-printed models and bone boxes containing every piece of human anatomy allow for careful examination and practice. “Having this level of access to anatomic resources is a huge asset,” he says.

Talmadge Gaither, MD ’26, who plans to focus his medical training in urology, cites proximity to the resources of University and Center City as a significant advantage. “Drexel doesn’t have a home program for urology, so being closer to Penn, Temple and Jefferson makes collaboration a lot easier,” he notes.

With more shared lounge areas and study spaces, collaboration and connection are happening inside the Health Sciences Building, too. Farabaugh points out that at Queen Lane, faculty offices were tucked away on one side of the building, separating them from students. The open layout of the building eases communication and interaction among students and educators, she says. “When you walk through the new building, you see and hear people, there’s space to congregate. You feel like you’re part of a community.”

What’s more, because students and faculty from all three schools are housed in the same building, that sense of community is not only accentuated, but facilitated. For several years Farabaugh has hosted interprofessional educational sessions with the College of Nursing and Health Professions. Given geographical constraints, they have always occurred via Zoom. Now that students share the same space, she’s eager to see those sessions take place in person.

To be sure, some aspects of Queen Lane will be missed. Transporting a few beloved items from the old campus to the new has helped to make the new space feel more like home. “We kept the ping pong tables,” jokes Rowe. “That was a must for the medical students. The pool table, too.”

But all in all, as the College’s faculty and staff — the final cohort to occupy the Health Sciences Building — settle in, excitement and promise are palpable.

Gaither, who works at the Legacy Center and has developed a deep appreciation for the College’s history and origins, captures the sentiments of many. “I’m grateful to have experienced the Queen Lane Campus. And I’m equally excited for the opportunity to experience the Health Sciences Building and to be a part of the College of Medicine community as it begins its next chapter.”

That excitement extends to the highest ranks of the school community. Dean Charles B. Cairns, MD, shares, “The opening of the new Health Sciences Building constitutes a momentous milestone for Drexel, one that positions students and faculty more squarely at the forefront of educational opportunity, interprofessional partnership and overall impact. That impact will be noticeable not only within our own school community, but importantly, throughout the Greater Philadelphia area and beyond.”

As a former Queen Lane medical student, Farabaugh can relate to the sense that the East Falls location was separate from the greater Drexel community. Upending those feelings is what excites her most about the College’s new home. “The potential, the opportunity and the experiences that the Health Sciences Building will bring for the students, that’s what I’m really looking forward to,” she says. “Not only educationally, but socially, too, helping them to feel more fully part of the larger Drexel community. The effect of that integration will be tremendously positive for all of us.”