War was declared on August 3, 1914. That same day, the “Ambulance Committee” of the American Hospital of Paris met to discuss the management of an “ambulance” (the term for a French military hospital).  Under the title “The American Ambulance of Paris”, this facility would function under the auspices of the American Hospital to provide care of those wounded in battle.    Also in attendance was American Ambassador to France, Myron T. Herrick.   Initially, the committee suggested setting up tents in the garden of the American Hospital, but Herrick and the French government arranged for the Lycée Pasteur, a boys high school under construction in Neuilly-sur-Seine, to be converted to a 1600-bed military hospital. Application to the board of the Lycée Pasteur met with resistance, owing to the fact that  the school would soon be in session.  With encouragement  from the French government, the board approved the offer on August 12 and the hospital received its first patients, soldiers wounded in the battle of the Marne, on September 7, 1914.