Brick and mortar do not a home make, but they sure help to keep the rain out!

— Anonymous

SA as a Society has been, and will always be, defined by the members it serves and, in turn, their service to their patients. Yet we can learn a lot about an organization by looking back at where it planted its roots, in the literal sense — the “whys” and “wherefores” that explain its present state of affairs.

The idea of a national organization of medical professionals dedicated to the welfare of the patient undergoing anesthesia for surgical, medical and obstetrical procedures was indeed born in New York in 1905. The Long Island College Hospital may have served as a meeting place for ASA’s charter members, but many more years would pass before the Society required dedicated office space.

The earliest records of ASA headquarters indicate that the Society’s business was conducted from 1935 to 1947 in rent-free space provided in the E. R. Squibb & Sons building, 745 Fifth Ave., Room 1503, New York City.¹ The newly formed Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology (WLM) shared space in the same location. Progress and growth being experienced during the post-war years were welcomed by ASA, but they also prompted Squibb to ask ASA to move to make room for its own growing business.

The E. R. Squibb & Sons building in New York City. No rent was charged while both ASA and the WLM resided at this location from 1935 to 1947. Image courtesy of the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.

On the Move
On April 10, 1947, at a meeting of the Board of Directors at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California, then ASA President Edward B. Tuohy, M.D., presided over a vote to move the business offices of the Society from New York to Chicago as a more central location for the growing national organization. With confidence that this new location would offer additional benefits to the Society, including a lower cost of living and access to convenient air travel from Orchard Field (renamed O’Hare International Airport in 1949), the board voted in favor. Thus the new address of the Society became: 188 W. Randolph St., Suite #909, Chicago 1, Illinois.²

The downside to the move to Chicago, however, was that there was no space for the WLM, and so it remained behind in the New York area and moved its collection several more times to temporary housing (including a garage in upstate New York and a boat house on Long Island).

ASA rented 2,172 square feet of office space on Randolph St., but in just over 10 years, it had become inadequate, uncomfortable (no air conditioning), expensive and unworkable for future expansion.³ In particular there was a new initiative to combine the headquarters with the WLM.

The building that housed the ASA at 188 W. Randolph St., Chicago, from 1947 to 1960 was built in 1929. Today it is known as Randolph Tower. Photograph © Wayne Lorentz/ Artefaqs Corp./ Used with permission.

Daniel C. Moore, M.D., who in 1958 was the youngest elected President-Elect of ASA at age 39, had been rallying for support of a bold new plan that would reorganize the administrative side of the Society to be run more like a business.⁴ His goal was to combine not only the WLM with the ASA headquarters but also the Journal office in Philadelphia.* He was convinced that spending rent on the office space in downtown Chicago would only increase deficit spending without increasing the Society’s net worth.⁵

Persistence Pays Off
On November 21, 1958, the ASA House of Delegates empowered the Board of Directors to select a location, purchase land, employ consultants and architects, obtain bids, determine methods of financing and construct a 6,000-square-foot building at a total cost not to exceed $225,000.⁵

Three days later, on November 24, Dr. Moore and ASA Executive Secretary John W. (Jack) Andes met with representatives of the real estate firm of Oliver S. Turner & Co., Chicago.⁵ The firm was instructed to review available property in the northern suburbs of Chicago, based on proximity to O’Hare, rail and bus transportation to Chicago and the suburbs, and in an established community with good local government and adequate utilities but not in a highly industrial area.

Sixteen available properties were considered before Park Ridge, 18 miles northwest of downtown Chicago, was selected. On May 16, 1959, the Board of Directors approved the building plans at an estimated cost of $228,440.70.³ At the same meeting, the Board also approved the selection of the architectural firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, famous for such landmarks as the Merchandise Mart and the Wrigley Building in Chicago and the new (being built at that time) State Department building in Washington, D.C.⁶

Only the one-story portion of this building (far right) existed in 1960. The two-story “annex” (far left) was added for the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology and dedicated in November 1963.

The budget allowed only $40,000 for the land purchase. The seller, Mr. Victor Christensen, was offering 3.5 acres for $95,000 but was willing to sell a 1-acre parcel for the allotted $40,000. Ground-breaking occurred on August 7, 1959, and by November 16, the outside walls of the new building were completed.⁷ In the March 1960 issue of the ASA NewsLetter, the new headquarters was officially announced: 515 Busse Highway, Park Ridge, Illinois; Telephone: TAlcott 5-5586.⁸

The following month, the building was ready for occupancy, a full 60 days ahead of schedule, despite a steel strike. Initial fears that a move from downtown Chicago to the suburbs would affect the staff, only one of ASA’s personnel did not move to the Park Ridge headquarters.³ The number of staff in 1960: 11.

The new one-story building, with an additional 4,000 square feet of basement storage space, was dedicated on May 21, 1960. Approximately 200 guests attended. The Dedicatory Address was presented by Leonard W. Larson, M.D., of Bismarck, North Dakota, Chair of the American Medical Association Board of Trustees:

“Your stature as a vital member of the great body of medical science has been increasingly evident in the last 30 years. It might be said that anesthesiology is one of the newest sciences, even though its practical application goes back to ancient times. …

“Your new headquarters will be a symbol to the medical world — a symbol of your past progress and a symbol of your future achievements. …”⁹

Critical Mass
By now the situation for the WLM had reached a critical stage. In August 1960, Mrs. Lily Foregger, the widow of Richard von Foregger, Ph.D., who died on January 18 of that year, informed the WLM trustees that she had sold the boathouse on Long Island, and all WLM materials in storage would need to be removed.³

Having resided in its new building for just one year, ASA found itself going back to the drawing board — literally — to design a two-story addition with 9,000 square feet of space to house the library and museum collections. The “annex” for the WLM was budgeted at $285,000 (actual was $286,769). On November 3, 1963, the new WLM was dedicated, six months after the death of its namesake, Paul M. Wood, M.D.

But ASA continued to be the victim of its own success. Membership had grown to more than 10,000, and during the 1970s, it became necessary to convert 3,000 square feet of museum space to office space. The next decade brought another explosive growth in membership, and again, additional space was “borrowed” from the WLM to accommodate the staff support needed for additional membership activities and new programs.¹⁰

By 1989 the ASA Committee on Planning recommended the appointment of a Committee on Building to evaluate ASA’s headquarters requirements. According to Harry H. Bird, M.D., Committee Chair and Immediate Past President, the committee “had a clear task to plan for new space that would be geographically suitable, functional, reasonable in cost and of appropriate quality and appearance to be considered ASA’s national headquarters.”¹¹

Where to build a new building was not an issue. In fact ASA needed to look no further than its own backyard. Forethought and good business sense had prompted the ASA leadership to purchase the remaining 2.5-acre parcel from Mr. Christensen just two years after buying the 515 Busse Highway property.¹² The land was leased back to Mr. Christensen for five years for his Park Ridge Greenhouses business, but those structures and a two-story residence were torn down in 1967.¹³ For the next 25 years, the property needed only to be mowed and required little more than annual payments for (minimal) property taxes as unimproved land.

Based on recommendations and studies presented by Dr. Bird’s committee, the ASA House of Delegates voted on October 23, 1990, to authorize the building project at a cost not to exceed $5 million. The Society financed the project with a short-term (five-year) loan and opted to sell its building and property at 515 Busse. The following August, Chipman Design Ltd. of Park Ridge, who had been selected through a competitive bid process to be the architectural firm to design the new building, presented its preliminary plans to the ASA Board of Directors. Selected from five bidders was the building contractor, Pepper Construction Co. of Chicago. Although the ASA building project was considered “small” when compared to its other commercial construction projects, Pepper company officials said they bid on the project in part due to its unique design and architectural challenges. The base construction bid was $3,264,300.

By 1991 ASA membership had exceeded 30,000 and its budget was more than $11 million. Staff now numbered 33 full-time employees.¹⁰

Where the Grass Is Greener
Using the same shovel that broke ground for its then new headquarters in 1959, ASA President Betty P. Stephenson, M.D. (ASA’s first and only female president to this day), officiated at the ceremony on July 29, 1991, attended by ASA leaders as well as Park Ridge Mayor Ronald Wietecha, City Manager Gerald Hagman, architect John Chipman and general contractor J. Stanley Pepper.

	Examining the blueprints for the original Busse Highway building at the ground-breaking ceremony on August 7, 1959, are ASA Presidents Drs. J. Earl Remlinger (1961), Leo V. Hand (1960), Daniel C. Moore (1959) and Albert M. Betcher (1963). Image courtesy of the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.
	Using the same shovel from 1959, 1991 President Betty P. Stephenson, M.D., second from left, breaks ground at the new headquarters location, joined by Executive Director Glenn W. Johnson; Dr. G.W.N. Eggers, Jr., President-Elect; and Dr. Peter L. McDermott, First Vice-President. Not pictured: Harry H. Bird, Chair of the Committee on Building.

Construction moved swiftly on the new three-story, 44,000-square-foot building with a full basement for storage. As important, the WLM would occupy approximately 10,000 square feet of the new building with its museum on the first floor and library collection on the third floor.

On May 8, 1992, ASA staff moved into their new home-away-from-home,¹⁰ just five weeks after ASA and the anesthesiology community celebrated the 150th anniversary of the first anesthetic for surgery, performed by Crawford W. Long, M.D., in Jefferson, Georgia, on March 30, 1842. Dedication of the new headquarters was held on August 15, 1992, with more than 200 ASA officers, district directors, local dignitaries, staff members and guests in attendance.

Since then ASA has added 18 new staff members to manage and carry out the new initiatives approved each year by the House of Delegates and Board of Directors as well as the daily interaction with ASA members who seek continuing medical education programs, publications, literature searches through the WLM and answers to questions about ASA’s standards and guidelines.

By the Numbers
During the lean time around 1956, ASA’s income over expenses was approximately $17,000, a figure which fell to a deficit of $5,000 in each of the next two years. The net worth of the Society then was approximately $200,000.¹⁴

When ASA made the decision to move to Park Ridge, all possible cost-savings measures were explored. To build the one-story headquarters, ASA invested $100,000 of its reserve funds and borrowed the remaining $125,000. These costs were offset in part by the annual savings of office rent ($24,000) and an aggressive Building Fund campaign that raised more than $44,000 from individual members.¹⁵

“The building program is the largest single financial commitment your Society has ever taken upon itself,” Dr. Moore wrote in the June 1959 ASA NewsLetter. “Accordingly, we must investigate the means available to raise funds to reduce the mortgage … We have cleared the big hurdle.”¹⁶

Originally Mr. Christensen offered the entire 3.5-acre parcel to ASA for $95,000 ($27,000 per acre), but the budget simply did not allow for any additional land purchase over the $40,000 that had been approved.³ Fortunately, two years later (1962), the additional 2.5 acres were still available, though the price had gone up to $115,000 ($46,000 per acre).¹³ It was purchased without further borrowing.

With careful financing and investing, by 1966, the Society’s net assets were reported to be just under $1 million, including about $600,000 in real estate and the balance in cash.

The “mod” cubic design of the 1960s lobby at the ASA headquarters in Park Ridge (top) gave way to smooth, elliptical curves when the new building was designed in the 1990s.

If walls could talk, they would loudly proclaim ASA’s successes since then. In fact, just two years after taking out the short-term loan for the current ASA Executive Office in Park Ridge, the loan was retired. Today ASA owns its building and property free and clear of loans or liens. The 2005 operating budget exceeds $20 million with ample reserves and cash on hand.

ASA’s house is indeed in order.

Denise M. Jones is ASA Assistant Executive Director.

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