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The 1876 Post Hospital is
the largest un-restored building at Fort Davis, and one of the most
architecturally significant buildings in the Southwest. It consists
of three connected units: two twelve-bed hospital wards and an
administrative unit which includes the surgeon's office, the
hospital steward's room, the dispensary, an isolation ward, and
several other rooms. The building's wide porches, breezeways, and
roof ventilators were designed to facilitate air circulation in its
two hospital wards. When it was completed it was considered one of
the most up-to-date medical facilities in the Southwest; it was even
supplied with ice from a steam-powered ice machine. The adobe
building was stabilized by the National Park Service in the late
1960s, when the roof was replaced and the porches reconstructed.
THE
HOSPITAL IN THE 1880s
In November, 2004, in
recognition of the hospital building's national significance, the
Friends of Fort Davis received a $200,000 matching grant from the
Save America's Treasures Program at the National Trust for Historic
Preservation to complete the restoration of the hospital's interior
and open it to the public. In order to make full use of the grant,
the Friends must match it with cash or in-kind contributions. To
date, matching contributions have totaled $60,000.
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Work on the hospital started in
the summer of 2005, when the park hosted a field school in
historic preservation at the building. National Park
Service professionals, with the assistance of master
craftsmen and students with the Graduate Program in Historic
Preservation at the University of Vermont and the
Cornerstones Community Partnerships of Santa Fe, New Mexico,
constructed and installed windows and floors and conserved
and restored plaster on interior walls. The field
school will be repeated in the summer of 2006. When
restoration is completed the surgeon's office, the hospital
steward's room, and one of the twelve-bed wards will be
furnished as they were in the 1880s and opened to the
public. But we need your help to finish the job and show the
public what an army hospital of the 1880s looked like! |
2005 FIELD
SCHOOL STUDENTS RESTORING PLASTER IN ADMINISTRATIVE UNIT |
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2005 FIELD
SCHOOL INSTALLING WINDOW IN ADMINISTRATIVE UNIT |
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INSTALLING
FLOOR IN ADMINISTRATIVE UNIT |
How Can I Help?
Work Completed
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