The building that housed the Bussey Institution was a
Gothic Revival structure erected on Bussey Hill beginning in 1871, in accordance with the terms of
Benjamin Bussey's will. After the Bussey Institution closed as an active academic body in 1936, its Jamaica Plain buildings were taken over during
World War II by the
U.S. Army Medical Corps, and the
Massachusetts Department of Public Health had already been using the site since the 1890s to produce
diphtheria antitoxin. By 1947 the Bussey buildings had become home to the state's Diagnostic Laboratories, and by 1963 the state needed more room and arranged the purchase of the former Bussey Institution grounds and buildings from
Harvard University. When construction of the new State Laboratory Institute began in 1969, efforts were made to preserve the old Gothic Bussey Institution building, but funding was not available for its restoration. The building was destructed due to a devastating fire and the remains were demolished in 1971. The new state public health complex that replaced it is now the
William A. Hinton State Laboratory. == Notable alumni ==