Rush University Medical Center dates back to March 2 , 1837 , when Rush Medical College received its charter . Daniel Brainard , MD , founded Rush Medical College in March 1837 , two days before Chicago was chartered as a city . It took seven years from the granting of the charter before Rush Medical College opened officially on December 4 , 1843 — with 22 students enrolled in a 16-week course . The college is named for Benjamin Rush , a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a Pennsylvania physician , who counted George Washington among his patients . He became a medical and humanitarian leader after the Revolutionary War . He was also a social activist , a prominent advocate for the abolition of slavery , for scientific education for the masses — including women — and for public medical clinics to treat the poor . At his death in 1813 , he was the most celebrated physician in America . In the manner of most medical schools in the 19th century , Rush was a proprietary institution owned and operated by a group of physicians who had joined Brainard in establishing practices in young Chicago . Presbyterian Hospital , Rush ’s teaching hospital , opened in 1884 . Following the 1871 Great Chicago Fire , Rush abandoned its destroyed campus and rebuilt in the West Side neighborhood it occupies today
Great Chicago Fire
Great Chicago Fire
Rush University