Dudley Coe Infirmary--Bowdoin College--Brunswick, Maine C33

Dudley Coe Infirmary--Bowdoin College--Brunswick, Maine C33

Dudley Coe Infirmary, Bowdoin College,Brunswick, Maine After one final flurry of activity with the swine flu outbreak in fall 2009, Dudley Coe lost its title as Health Center to the state-of-the-art Peter Buck Center for Health and Fitness. As the state-of-the-art Buck Center opened its doors, the role of the historic Dudley Coe changed for the first time in almost 100 years. With health services no longer present in the building, the first infirmary in College history was finally closed. Built in 1917 after much urging from then-President William DeWitt Hyde, the infirmary was a progressive addition at the time and made Bowdoin one of the most advanced institutions in health services. Throughout the years, the building served to treat communicable diseases and illnesses among students and provided immunizations and sports medicine. Hyde, the College's seventh president and successor to Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, included the need for an infirmary in his 1915-1916 Report of the President. Later that year, Bowdoin alum Dr. Thomas Upham Coe donated money to cover the entire cost of the construction. Coe asked that the building be named after his only son Dudley, who passed away at 14 years old. Dudley Coe was designed and built in a style similar to the infirmary at Williams College, with a Colonial-style exterior and a three-level interior complete with kitchen, laundry, reception areas, wards for diseases such as scarlet fever and a nurses' suite, among other features.