Consider this a portal back to 1838. Right here stand the ruins of the Brooklyn Naval Hospital. It operated until 1948. This hospital was more than just a place for treating the sick. It was a witness to history.
The Brooklyn Naval Hospital started with a need. The Brooklyn Navy Yard needed a real hospital. Before that, the facilities were not good. A letter from 1811 said the hospital flooded. It lacked sterile linings to stop disease. In 1824, the Navy bought land for a new hospital. It was 25 or 33 acres.
Construction began in 1830. It finished in 1838. The outside used Tuckahoe marble. It looked grand. The 1850s brought a gatehouse, lab, and cemetery. This hospital is a rare early US institutional structure. It saw four wars.
During the Civil War, the Brooklyn Naval Hospital became key. It treated sailors and dock workers. It held 125 beds, then 150 patients. In the 1850s, it became the main Navy hospital. The Surgeon’s House got done in 1863. It is two stories. The hospital treated almost 25% of all Union casualties. Annexes helped treat 450 patients at once. After the war, civilians also received care.
E. R. Squibb was important here. He invented anesthetic ether in the hospital lab. He improved how to distill ether. When the Civil War began, he gave drugs from his lab on Furman Street.
By 1904, the Brooklyn Naval Hospital ranked among the best. Around 1917, World War I made it grow. They doubled the original hospital to 600 beds. The supply depot moved to Sands Street. The old depot became patient space. In 1919, they built nurses’ quarters. It held 130 nurses. Another wing opened in 1920.
These changes let the hospital hold 3,000 patients in World War I. After that, patient numbers fell. But a national emergency came in 1938 before World War II. The Works Progress Administration fixed up 37 buildings. No new buildings were built. Over the war, 65,197 patients were cared for. The Navy’s first Cardiac Consultation Service started here in 1941.
In April 1948, the Navy said they would close the Brooklyn Naval Hospital. On June 30, 1948, it officially closed. Most patients went to St. Albans Naval Hospital in Queens. The hospital became the United States Naval Receiving Annex, Brooklyn.
In 1964, the federal government closed the Brooklyn Navy Yard. People feared the hospital would be torn down. On October 14, 1965, the city landmarked it. Some opposed this. They felt the city law did not apply to federal property. But the city continued. The site became one of the first city landmarks.
Today, the buildings look as they did when abandoned. Some were torn down in the late 20th century. In 1997, skeletons got found in the cemetery.
Steiner Studios wants to build a media campus here. They plan to fix the hospital buildings. Restoration should take nearly ten years. The National Register of Historic Places listed the hospital in 2014. The Steiner Studios plan includes restoring 15 buildings. It will also tear down some things for the new facility.
What stories do these walls whisper? They echo with the dedication of doctors, the sacrifices of soldiers, and the march of time. The Brooklyn Naval Hospital is more than ruins. It is a monument to service.