“Today, medicine and medical research offer the one great opportunity for cooperation and understanding among the nations of the world. Medicine speaks a universal language—it speaks to all peoples in all lands—and a victory in medicine by any nations is a victory shared by all nations and all mankind.”
—Senator Lister Hill
The Division of Biologics Standards (DBS) celebrated its Fifth Anniversary on June 30, 1960, with the dedication of its new home, Building 29. The building was not ready for occupancy, but the first floor was open for visitors to see after the ceremony.
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Photograph from the Building 29 Dedication Ceremony
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NIH Office of History & Stetten Museum
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“I am confident that this new building and its modern facilities – coupled with the most important resource of the Division of Biologics Standards, its highly trained and competent staff – will help enable the Public Health Service to achieve even greater heights in its goal to improve the health of the people.”
—Representative John Fogarty, from the concluding remarks of the dedication ceremony
The new building would bring together more than 190 staff who were previously working in at least 5 different buildings on the NIH campus.
Dr. Ed Tabor, who worked in Biologics with the FDA from 1995 to 2005 also grew up on the NIH campus, the son of two illustrious scientist parents who served in the Public Health Service and lived on the NIH campus. Tabor attended the dedication ceremony as a child in 1960 and reported on it in his neighborhood newsletter.
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Limestone Cornerstone of Building 29, North Elevation, Right (west) Entrance Jam.
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Katie Watts
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Building 29, the NIH Division of Biologics Standards (DBS) Laboratory, is nationally significant to the history of medicine and public health because within the laboratories of Building 29, scientific investigators conquered some of the deadliest infectious diseases that scourged America and the world. Some of the most well-known scientists and administrators of the twentieth century worked in this building, first for the NIH and then for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Building 29 was purpose-built in 1960 to house the newly established Division of Biologics Standards, which had been formed in 1955 as the continuation of a biologics regulatory function that had existed in what is now the NIH since 1902. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was in office when funding for the new building was made available for the DBS.
Building 29 was designed to be functional and safe for the Division of Biologics Standards. The building does not have much exterior ornament and does not contain the Georgian Revival style features that are present on the historic core of the NIH campus. Compared to construction drawings, the floor plan of Building 29 has not changed much since it opened in 1960. When the building was vacated in 2014, most of the laboratory equipment was removed. Asbestos abatement has led to partial demolition in some areas, but the exterior of the building remains intact, and some interior spaces do as well, conveying the significance of the laboratory space.
Builder, contractor, suppliers: The Norair Engineering Corporation constructed the building and Public Building Services of the General Services Administration (GSA) administered the contracts. John A. Cofrancesco, Research Facilities Planning Branch, DRS, was the NIH project engineer.
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Building 29 in the early 1960s, before Building 29A had been constructed.
