The demolition of the old Munroe-Meyer Institute buildings on the UNMC campus includes the destruction of the building that housed the J.P. Lord School.
Who was J.P. Lord? And why was this building connected to the UNMC campus?
John Prentiss Lord, MD, was born in Illinois in 1860. He received his medical degree from Rush Medical College in 1882, moving to Omaha four years later. Dr. Lord served as the anatomy chair at Creighton School of Medicine from 1892 until 1893, when he became an associate professor of surgery. He served briefly as the dean of the Creighton School of Medicine (1900-1901). In 1913, Dr. Lord joined the University of Nebraska College of Medicine as a professor of orthopedic surgery and the department's first chair. He would work at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine until his retirement in 1932.
Dr. Lord helped found the Nebraska Orthopedic Hospital, which opened in Lincoln in 1905. Dr. Lord served as the hospital’s surgeon-in-chief from 1905 until 1917. In 1909, Nebraska suffered a severe epidemic of infantile paralysis, commonly known as polio. According to the University of Nebraska College of Medicine 1915 publication "The Pulse," 500 to 600 children in Nebraska contracted polio. Many of those children were treated at the Nebraska Orthopedic Hospital by Dr. Lord. Surgical treatments for polio in the 1910s included correcting deformities, improving muscular function and securing the stability of paralyzed joints.
Dr. Lord was responsible for improving the lives of hundreds of young polio patients. To honor his contribution to the well-being of children with disabilities, the Omaha Public School system and the Nebraska Society for Crippled Children opened the J.P. Lord School in 1938. Offering services for students with special needs, the school opened in the basement of the old Field Club School. OPS later constructed a dedicated building for the J.P. Lord School in 1959 near the Meyer Therapy Center, the Hattie B. Munroe Home and Children's Memorial Hospital. The complex of health care facilities close to University Hospital, the University of Nebraska College of Medicine and the School of Nursing became known as the Nebraska Children’s Center. For decades, the Nebraska Children’s Center provided services to the children of Nebraska and western Iowa.
Beginning in 1981, some of the facilities within the Nebraska Children’s Center started to move away from the vicinity of the UNMC campus. This included the move of Children’s Hospital to Dodge Street. In 2018, OPS opened a new building for the J.P. Lord School near 45th and Marinda Streets. And in 2021, the Munroe-Meyer Institute moved into a new facility near the University of Nebraska at Omaha Scott Campus.
Dr. Lord died in 1940 after a distinguished career dedicated to serving the orthopedic patients of Nebraska.