Main Body

The Early Years

After years of petitioning the commissioner, who in turn appealed to the governor, Dr. Magill's wish for a farm was granted in May, 1913, with a $10,000 appropriation from the legislature.

Shortly thereafter, property was purchased in Guilderland on present-day Route 155, colloquially known as State Farm Road. The same year, Governor William Sulzer appointed a commission to evaluate the public health and the public health laboratory of New York State, and named as its chair Hermann M. Biggs, M.D., chief medical officer of the New York City Department of Health. The commission called for a reorganization of the state Health Department, which

"should be provided with new laboratories, with sufficient land and equipped with adequate facilities for making examinations and analyses for local health officers and for original research."

Dr. Biggs was drafted as state health commissioner in 1914. He in turn appointed Augustus B. Wadsworth, M.D., director of the Division of Laboratories and Research.

The Early Years...

• Introduction
• Antitoxin Laboratory - Yates Street, Albany, New York
• Manufacturing of the diphtheria antitoxin
• Examining the products for sterility and potency
• Production pipeline ended in the laboratory's shipping room
• Single site for all laboratory activities
• Recruiting personnel to staff the expanded laboratory
• New York City's Quarantine Station
• Wish for a farm was granted in May, 1913
• Media production facility
• Dr. Augustus B. Wadsworth and staff