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Oteen Veteran's Administration Hospital
Photo courtesy of City
Development, City of Asheville, North Carolina |
Asheville has long been known as a health retreat, beginning first
with American Indians who set this region aside as a place to bring
their sick and ailing. Dr. Z. P. Gruner opened the country's first private
sanitarium in Asheville in 1875. In 1918, US Army General Hospital No.
19 opened in Asheville to serve the soldiers in the area who were training
for duty for the First World War. When the U.S. Veterans' Bureau was
created three years later, the hospital became part of that system,
and part of the Veterans' Administration (VA) when it was organized
and replaced the Bureau in 1930. New frame Colonial Revival and stucco
Georgian Revival buildings were built for the Oteen Veteran's Administration
Hospital from 1924 to 1932, replacing the previous wooden hospital buildings.
The Asheville Citizen-Times remarked on this construction with a headline
on September 10, 1928, that read "Oteen Growing Beautiful With
New Buildings." According to Colonel Henry Hoagland, he suggested
the name Oteen as it was an American Indian word meaning "chief
aim" and it was the chief aim of every patient to get well. The
hospital's primary focus was the treatment of tuberculosis, and it was
the only VA hospital in the southeast devoted to the treatment of respiratory
ailments.
Color postcard of Oteen Veteran's
Administration Hospital
Photo courtesy of City
Development, City of Asheville, North Carolina
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A total of 18 buildings were constructed from 1924 to 1932, including
an administration building, wards A, B, C, D, E and F, a kitchen and
dining hall, four officers' quarters, two staff apartments, two nurses
dormitories and attendants' quarters for African Americans. Semi-subterranean
corridors were built connecting wards D, F and E. Several smaller utilitarian
buildings were also built including a power plant and a laundry. Today,
thirteen major buildings remain. Unfortunately, the new hospital and
buildings obscure the planned landscaping which was such a primary focus
in 1924. The hospital remains a part of the VA system today.
The Oteen Veteran's Administration Hospital is located at 1100 Tunnel
Rd., also known as Rte. 70. Still a Veterans Administration
Hospital, it is not open to the general public.
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