Walter Reed General Hospital

The Army's general hospital on Georgia Avenue, opened in 1909.

A young man in bed wearing headphones — 1924 A bedridden soldier at Walter Reed Hospital listens to the radio through headphones plugged into the wall, 1924.Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress · LC-H27- A-8698 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

History

Walter Reed General Hospital admitted its first patients on May 1, 1909, named for the Army doctor who led the team that confirmed that yellow fever is spread by mosquitoes. From a 65-bed hospital it grew over the following decades into a campus of about a hundred brick buildings.

What's there now

The Army medical centre merged with the naval hospital in Bethesda, Maryland in 2011, and the site is being redeveloped as The Parks at Walter Reed, reusing historic buildings.

Then and now

The original hospital building, now Building 1, still stands.

Photographs 4, oldest first

A person in a wheelchair covered in flowers with women in white uniforms beside — 1919 A patient decked in flowers sits in a wheelchair between nurses at the Fourth of July celebration at Walter Reed in 1919.Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress · LC-H261- 30553 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Firemen and hoses beside the burned-out frame of a wooden building — December 11, 1920 Firemen among the charred timbers of a burned building at Walter Reed hospital, December 11, 1920. place uncertainNational Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F8- 10872 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A large crowd on a slope with a choir in white — April 20, 1930 Easter sunrise service at Walter Reed Hospital, April 20, 1930.Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress · LC-H2- B-3969 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Nearby: Rock Creek Park and the Zoo · The Knickerbocker Theatre · The National Cathedral · Griffith Stadium · U Street and Shaw