Existing comment:
A Vast Hospital Once Stood Here:
"Our work was here and no less heroic than the ones who went over..."
-- Emily Raine Williams, Army Nurse Corps
"General Hospital No. 2 has been built entirely around the original fort..."
-- Captain Maurice A. Hockman, Constructing Quartermaster, 1918
During World War I, the US Army built over 100 buildings around the star fort. One of the largest military hospitals in the country, it housed 3,000 wounded soldiers from the battlefields of France. Over 1,000 staff worked in this facility.
From 1917 until 1923, the fort also served as a surgical center. Medical staff made great advances in neurosurgery and reconstructive surgery. General Hospital No. 2 was one of the country's first schools to reintegrate disabled soldiers into civilian life by offering special classes in typing, knitting, metal work, automobile repair and other trades. |