On 14 November 1888, French President Sadi Carnot inaugurated the first Institute Pasteur building in Paris, giving the institution established after Louis Pasteur’s work on rabies vaccination a permanent home. The brick-and-stone complex brought laboratories, a treatment department, classrooms and a private residence together on one site. The 138th anniversary falls on 14 November 2026.

The project took shape after Pasteur presented the results of early human rabies vaccinations to the French Academy of Sciences in March 1886. The academy launched an international appeal to finance a dedicated centre. As plans developed, the institute’s remit expanded to include research into infectious diseases and scientific instruction alongside treatment. The institute gained official charitable status in June 1887, the same month construction began.

Finding a site was an early challenge. Paris municipal authorities offered land on Rue Vauquelin that Pasteur was already using, along with an additional parcel. Pasteur declined the offer, expressing a preference for an independent facility. In March 1887, as donations approached two million gold francs, the project acquired an 11,000-square-metre site for 420,000 francs on Rue Dutot, now Rue du Docteur-Roux. The site, in what is now the 15th arrondissement, lay on the outskirts of Paris at the time.

The architect Petit drew up the plans and began construction in June 1887. Félicien Brébant took over after Petit died later that year. A central corridor linked the building’s two parallel wings. The exterior featured a Louis XIII-style brick-and-stone façade, with mansard roofs above the upper floors. An inscription on the front pediment recorded the year and commemorated the public fundraising appeal that financed the project.

One wing housed the Pasteurs’ apartment and Louis Pasteur’s laboratory, while the other contained spaces for treatment, research and teaching. The institute opened with five research laboratories and a rabies vaccination department. According to the institute’s historical account, about 600 guests attended the inauguration in its library, including government ministers, scientists and donors. Busts of major contributors stood around the podium.

Louis and Marie Pasteur moved into their purpose-built apartment in 1888. It occupied the first and second floors at the front of the south wing. Louis Pasteur spent his final years there before leaving for Marnes-la-Coquette in June 1895 as his health declined. He died there that September and was buried in a crypt on the institute grounds. France’s heritage register credits architect Charles Girault with designing the funerary chapel and Luc-Olivier Merson with its mosaic decoration.

The institute expanded in 1900. Donations from Madame Lebaudy and Baroness de Hirsch supported the addition of a hospital and a biological chemistry institute. France’s Ministry of Culture records that the hospital had 90 beds. The heritage register also identifies a greenhouse and administrative buildings among the additions from that period.

The apartment took on a public role decades later. In 1922, delegates from several countries and universities visited it during commemorations marking the centenary of Pasteur’s birth. Scientific instruments displayed in the rooms formed the basis of a museum collection. After Pasteur’s grandson decided to leave family furniture and belongings to the institute, the apartment was restored as closely as possible to its original appearance. It opened as the Pasteur Museum on 20 May 1936 displaying period furnishings and scientific objects.

On 13 November 1981, France classified the entire original building as a historic monument, including the crypt, library and museum. The buildings added in 1900 received a separate heritage listing under the same order. The Institute Pasteur says the museum is closed to the public until November 2028 while the historic building undergoes restoration and refurbishment.

The restoration plans include a new visitor route through the historic building, with additional space for exhibitions and educational activities. The apartment will form part of that route, allowing visitors to see how the original complex accommodated both the Pasteurs’ home and the institute’s scientific work.