111 Waverly Avenue (formerly Henry Health Center) Special Collections Research Center

Henry Health Center, SU Photo & Imaging Photos RS 17561

Construction Contract Signed: June 1971

Opened: August 1972

Dedication: October 20, 1972

Dedication Speaker: Lewis W. Bluemle, Jr., M.D., president of SUNY Upstate Medical Center

Named for: Ruth Van Arsdale Henry, Class of 1919

Architects: King & King Architects, Syracuse

Contractor: Samuel Kosoff and Sons, Syracuse

Cost: $1.3 million

Expanded: 1986

Funded by: Reverend Leland B. Henry gave securities valued at about $350,000. Other major contributors included Syracuse Medical Alumni Association ($50,000); Good Shepherd Alumnae Association of Nurses ($45,000); Baird Foundation ($50,000); Marine Midland Bank-Central ($69,000); and other banks, business firms, individuals and small foundations. The Syracuse University Parents Association, including more than 6,000 parents, contributed in excess of $600,000. The rest of the cost was financed by the University through a grant from the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

Notes: Henry Health Center was built on the site of the old infirmary and health services building on Waverly Avenue and was connected with existing health facilities at 804 University Ave. At completion, it had space for 28 beds, a small kitchen, a dining room, an examining room, outpatient facilities, records, a small lounge-library-chapel and a reception area. The infirmary was named after Ruth Van Arsdale Henry, Class of 1919, the first wife of Reverend Leland B. Henry, Class of 1918. Reverend Henry died August 31, 1968, prior to the building's completion.

In 1986 the building was renovated and a second story was added. After the building underwent additional renovations in 2022 to allow several offices to consolidate in one location for more streamlined service for students, Henry Health Center was renamed 111 Waverly Ave.