In 1894, Siméon B. Bell, a prominent physican and real estate developer in the Kansas City area, donated land and a generous sum of money to the University of Kansas to build a hospital and medical school in Rosedale, Kansas in honor of his late wife, Eleanor Taylor Bell. After an 11-year debate among state legislators over establishing a medical school in more centralized locations in Kansas, such as Topeka, the Eleanor Taylor Bell Memorial Hospital was built on Seminary Street, Rosedale and occupied in 1906. During this year, a training program for nurses was established and a research laboratory and outpatient clinic was also opened to support the new medical school. In the years following, because the 35-bed Bell Memorial Hospital was proving too small, a second and larger building was constructed circa 1912.

In 1924, due to the need for expansion and the limited accessibility of the Hospital's hillsite geography, a new hospital was constructed at 39th Street and Rainbow Boulevard, and the campus was moved to this larger site. The new hospital retained the Bell Memorial Hospital name and the original building became the Murphy Administration Building. In the following years, the building held classes in pathology and pharmacology, as well as serving as a laboratory. In 1958, after being abandoned for a period of time, the building was used by the National Foundation of Infantile Paralysis and then the National Institutes of Health as a laboratory, until the building was demolished in 1972.