St. Elizabeths Hospital
2700 Martin Luther King Jr., Ave., SE., Washington, District of Columbia
Photos
WEST (FRONT) FACADE
Photo taken for the Historic American Buildings Survey
Map
Coordinates:
+38.85021, -76.9941538°51'01" N, 76°59'39" W
Quadrangle map:Anacostia
Description
St. Elizabeths Hospital, founded in 1852, began operations in 1855 as the Government Hospital for the Insane, one of the nation's earliest asylums to offer moral treatment and enlightened human care to persons with mental illness. The first medical superintendent was Charles H. Nichols (1820-1889), who collaborated with the social reformer Dorothea Dix (1802-1887) to establish a model institution in the capital city. For more than a century, St. Elizabeths was internationally recognized as a leading clinical and training institution. During the Civil War, the property was also used to house wounded soldiers. A reluctance of the soldiers to write home stating that they were recuperating at the Government Hospital for the Insane gave rise to the use of the name St. Elizabeths, the historic name of the old royal land grant of which the campus was a part. Thereafter, the institution was informally referred to as St. Elizabeths for decades until the name was formally changed by Congress in 1916. -- National Historic Landmark statement of significance, December 14, 1990
National Register information
- Status
- Posted to the National Register of Historic Places on April 26, 1979
- Reference number
- 79003101
- Architectural style
- Victorian: Gothic
- Areas of significance
- Architecture; Health/Medicine; Social History
- Level of significance
- National
- Evaluation criteria
- B - Person; A - Event; C - Design/Construction
- Property type
- District
- Historic functions
- Hospital; Cemetery
- Current function
- Hospital
- Periods of significance
- 1850-1874; 1875-1899; 1900-1924; 1925-1949
- Significant years
- 1852; 1878; 1902
- Number of properties
- Contributing buildings: 128
Update Log
- May 12, 2012: Imported photos from HABS/HAER
Sources
- HABS DC-349-A - St. Elizabeths Hospital, B Building (No. 75)
- HABS DC-349-B - St. Elizabeths Hospital, C Building (No. 73)
- HABS DC-349-C - St. Elizabeths Hospital, I Building (No. 95)
- HABS DC-349-D - St. Elizabeths Hospital, J Building (No. 60)
- HABS DC-349-E - St. Elizabeths Hospital, K Building (No. 66)
- HABS DC-349-F - St. Elizabeths Hospital, L Building (No. 64)
- HABS DC-349-G - St. Elizabeths Hospital, M Building (No. 72)
- HABS DC-349-H - St. Elizabeths Hospital, N Building (No. 94)
- HABS DC-349-I - St. Elizabeths Hospital, P Building (No. 100)
- HABS DC-349-J - St. Elizabeths Hospital, Q Building (No. 68)
- HABS DC-349-K - St. Elizabeths Hospital, R Building (No. 89)
- Wikipedia
- National Register database - Reference number 79003101 (Nomination form, Photos)
- National Historic Landmark information