National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Montgomery County, MD

Significance: Begun as a one-room laboratory in 1887, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, today is one of the world's foremost biomedical research centers and the world's single largest supporter of biomedical research. Since 1938, the headquarters of NIH has been in Bethesda, Maryland. The core of the site was donated by Helen and Luke I. Wilson in 1935. Since its establishment, the Bethesda campus has been the location of an extraordinary quantity of basic and clinical medical research. As the administrative center for NIH, it is also the center of the remarkable extramural program that has supported a significant portion of the nation's medical research. Specific medical advancements attributable to NIH's programs include the prizewinning work of 90 Nobel laureates through the extramural program and the work of five Nobel laureates through its intramural program.
Survey number: HABS MD-1102
Building/structure dates: 1887 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1938 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1942-1943 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1946 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1953 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1962 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: after. 1990- before. 2000 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1926 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1931 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1922-1923 Subsequent Work