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By Fred Padget The new U.S. Marine Hospital was completed in 1892 but the story begins with the original U.S. Marine Hospital, when, in 1853, “in response to repeated petitions of citizens who thought Evansville as much entitled to a hospital as Paducah, an appropriation was made for a marine hospital at this port. A two acre site, well located on the bank of the Ohio, was purchased, and ground broken in the fall of 1853.”(1) This apparently was on or near the Mead Johnson Terminal location. “The building was completed and furnished in October 1856. It was a handsome three-storied, brick, stone trimmed building, with basement cellar, and was heated by hot-air furnaces; it provided accommodations sufficient for 110 patients, and cost the (U.S.) Government $73,078.56.” (2) “The first patient was not admitted until the night of January 1, 1857...and died very soon thereafter. ”(3) This may have influenced the future because patients were scarce. Dr. M. J. Bray, surgeon in charge, and John Kehoe, hospital steward, agreed that the number of patients, as compared with the capacity of the hospital, was small. The number, on occasion, was as high as 20 but often, and for months at a time, “there was but one patient under treatment”. (4) During January 1862 “the river became blockaded by reason of the war (the Civil War), and applicants for relief were in consequence very few, the hospital was converted into a general military hospital…in 1867 the hospital and grounds were sold to Mr. Carpenter for $10,507.11. He later sold it about two years later to the Catholic Sisters, who reopened it under the name of St. Mary’s Hospital”. (5) Because of some disagreement within the staff, the Evansville City Hospital was subsequently established. The “new” U.S. Marine Hospital is the approximately 10-acre site at 2700 West Illinois Street in the process of potential rezoning we’ve reported on elsewhere. During 1888, Congress appropriated $100,000 for this “new” hospital. Land cost was $8,800 with the balance to be used for grading, building construction, heating plant, and laundry. “The hospital consists of the executive building, kitchen and laundry building, surgeon’s residence, two wards, and stables. The former three are built of brick, two stories high, while the wards and stables are one-story frame buildings. The wards are surrounded by broad verandas, and connected with the executive and kitchen buildings by covered porches.” (6) All this for less than $100,000. The “new” hospital opened January 25, 1892. While the patient capacity was 40, 34 were the most patients cared for at any one time. This hospital closed in 1947. Since that time, the buildings were used for the Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center and consideration was given to turning them into condominium type retirement facilities, building apartments and, recently, building a warehousing operation at that location. During 1978, Vanderburgh County explored the possibility of purchasing the property for various uses. Ultimately, somewhere around 1984, the buildings were demolished and history moved on. We thank Willard Library for preserving so much of this history and making it available to the WIA. If you have some time and want to be fascinated by history, visit Willard Library, look up the U.S. Marine Hospital files, along with much other history of the area, and enjoy. Many of the articles we reviewed were from the Evansville Courier and written by Bish Thompson, Joycelyn Winnecke, Herb Marynell, Rod Spaw, Ridge Kennedy and others. It was a nice visit with them all. And, if you have Internet capability, check out
postcards.evansville.net/
This site has some really interesting pictures of Evansville hospitals including
many of the U.S. Marine Hospital. |
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© 2008 Westside Improvement Association, Inc. |
