The landmark lobby, through which passed the mothers of fully half the children born in Manhattan early in this century, contains rich reminders of the building's past. A marble tablet, inscribed with the Hippocratic Oath and originally unveiled by J.P. Morgan at the opening of the building, has been preserved in the lobby. Preserved also is a high relief plaster tableau of youths in Roman dress, historically emblematic of health and healing.

"Naturally, the lobby now functions as the entryway to the newly created residential apartments the building houses," noted Barnet Liberman, a principal of Orb Development, the firm that undertook the preservation of Rutherford Place after it was designated a historic landmark. "But, as with the exterior of the building, the idea was to come as close in spirit and actuality as possible to the original design."

The Orb Development team worked closely with architects Beyer Blinder Belle to reconstruct what the original lobby must have looked like. The team often had to work from a knowledge of the period and the architectural and construction practices of the day.