For a time, the old naval hospital in southeast Washington served as the United States Medical School, established May 27, 1902, and later referred to as teh "Old School." When class No. 13 graduated from the School of Instruction at Norfolk on May 81, 1907, equipment was crated for shipment to Washington. Plans to develop a new naval hospital resulted in this move from Norfolk to the capitol city, where class No. 14 convened on October 1st of the same year. Six additional classes were put through the course here, with the last class graduating on February 1, 1911 - a century after Congress passed the act establishing naval hospitals.
When use of the building as a naval hospital was discontinued on Febraury 3, 1911, it was designated as an annex for cases of infectious diseases and for overcrowding of wards at the new hospital. It was later listed as headquarters for teh Naval Reserve. The new naval hospital, formerly the Naval Medical School Hospital, at the 23rd Street, northwest, reservation, was commissioned in October of 1906, although still in a state of incompletion.
By special authority of an act of Congress, approved on June 7, 1926 (44 Stat. 702), the old naval hospital was leased for a 15-year period, ending on June 30, 1942, to the "Board of Management of the Temporary Home for Union-ex-Soldiers, Sailor and Marines, Department of the Potomac." Date of the lease was July 1, 1927, in consideration of $1 a year. Today it houses an Advisory Neighborhood (continued on page 29)
This site is sponsored by the Friends of the Old Naval Hospital
Last updated November 22, 2008
