hington has been home to a variety of naval hospital facilities since the end of the nineteenth century. The Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton received a naval hospital soon after its establishment in the 1890s. The first hospital, a frame building, was soon replaced by a permanent hospital on the hillside above the shipyard. This hospital served the navy community for many years until a new hospital was opened in 1980 at Jackson Park in Bremerton. During World War I a hospital housed in two university dormitories served trainees at a naval training center established on the University of Washington's Seattle campus. Then in World War II the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard hospital could not expand to meet all the increased need so a temporary naval hospital operated during those years just north of Seattle in Shoreline.
Naval Hospital, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton
The Puget Sound Navy Yard (later the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard) was established in 1891 at Bremerton in Kitsap County. Lieutenant Ambrose B. Wyckoff (1848-1922) located the shipyard on undeveloped land on Sinclair Inlet. In 1892 construction begin on the first dry dock. Dry Dock #1 went into service in 1896. The first medical department was housed aboard the decommissioned gunship USS Nispic in 1896. A wood frame building was constructed on the hull amidships to make it a barracks ship. In 1901 a sick quarters was opened in a building above Dry Dock #1. It had 16 beds and four tents for patients. This two-story frame building was designated a naval hospital in March 1903. The staff included one surgeon and two hospital stewards. In 1907 the hospital cared for 225 patients.
In March 1909 the Navy Yard received funding for a permanent hospital. Construction workers completed the building on January 27, 1911. However, medical equipment did not arrive until late 1911, delaying the opening until January 1, 1912. The hospital was a two-story masonry brick administration building with two attached wings. Built in a Neo-Classical style, it had a capacity of 200 beds. The building was built in the navy yard's northwest section on the hillside above the industrial area to take advantage of breezes and cleaner air. Patients had a view of the water or the golf course on the landward side. Meanwhile, construction of Dry Dock #2 had undercut the foundation of the old hospital building, which was therefore condemned. The navy sold the building to a private group that moved it to Seventh and Chester Streets in Bremerton. It became a civilian hospital and expanded over the years. Still surviving, it has served as a hospital and a nursing home, and now houses apartments.
In 1915 an isolation building was added to the Naval Hospital. It proved insufficient to handle the influenza epidemic three years later. The Puget Sound Naval Shipyard hospital was hard hit by the 1918 epidemic. A staff of one medical officer, one nurse, two stewards and 12 American Red Cross nurses on loan dealt with four to five deaths a day at the peak of the epidemic. The death toll for 1918 was 89 patients, 77 of those from influenza.
In the 1920s additional buildings were constructed. On November 8, 1920, an American Red Cross Hostess House opened. The two-story wood frame Hostess House offered a relaxing home-like setting for patient recreation. A frame nurses quarters was completed in June 1921. Over the next three years medical officer housing and a commanders quarters were built. Additional masonry brick wings, connected by an enclosed corridor, were added to the hospital in 1924 and 1925. The hospital reached a capacity of 400 beds. In 1927 the hospital obtained guidance and advice from the Seattle Parks Department in developing a landscape plan. The navy landscaped the hospital grounds with flowering trees, plantings around the buildings, and grass. The hospital became one of the most impressive in the Puget Sound area. There was little construction activity during the early 1930s due to the Depression and limited budgets. Public Works Administration (PWA) projects starting in 1936 added more permanent buildings. These additions included a corpsman barracks and, in 1939, another wing. At this point the hospital had its administration or central building and eight wings.
In the early years of World War II, wood frame H-type temporary wards and other buildings were built at the hospital complex. A temporary barracks for Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service (WAVES) was erected in 1943. The WAVES performed clerical and support services in the hospital. The most famous visitor to the hospital during the war was President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945). He toured the facility in a convertible, stopping to talk with personnel outside the hospital. Patients leaned out the windows to see the president and shout words of encouragement. The patient count for all of World War II was more than 29,000.
During the Korean War the hospital became busy again with 17,000 admissions. Following this war the hospital continued medical care for sailors on visiting ships and the navy community. In 1980 a new Naval Hospital opened at the former Naval Ammunition Depot at Jackson Park in Bremerton. This modern hospital serves the Puget Sound Navy community. The old hospital was demolished with the exception of six buildings. Still standing in 2012 are the Sick Officers Quarters, Building 491 (built 1942), and the Corpsman Barracks, Building 443 (1937). The former Sick Officers Quarters recently underwent rehabilitation designed to maintain its historic integrity. It is now home to the Navy College, Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, and religious units. The Corpsman Barracks has also been rehabilitated and converted to office space. Four other quarters also survive, including officers apartments built in 1923 and now used as shipyard officers housing. Another officers quarters, a two-story frame house constructed in 1923 as the commanding officer's home, is used as base housing, as are two Warrant Pharmacists Quarters built in 1926.
