A century ago, with the United States and other nations involved in The Great War, improvements to existing American military hospitals were underway. New facilities were built across the country to train army medical personnel and to provide care and treatment centers for the many soldiers and servicemen returning from the conflict in Europe.
Oteen hospital complex circa 1930. Ruiz Family Collection, Western Regional Archives.
Near Azalea, North Carolina—located east of the city of Asheville—“a 1,000-bed hospital for the treatment of tuberculosis” was built at a proposed cost of $1,325,000. Atlanta’s Gude Construction Company received the bid to begin work on the 60-plus buildings. By the end of the summer the War Department authorized an additional $300,000 to expand the facility, which was first known as General Hospital No. 19 at Azalea. After the new Oteen Post Office opened in 1918, the hospital was informally referred to as Oteen Hospital, or the hospital at Oteen.
In 1920, a large-scale construction campaign got underway. Original wooden structures were torn down and replaced with a permanent campus to minister to all aspects of veterans’ health care needs. Among the first permanent buildings constructed were two hospital wards along the east side of Riceville Road, known as Wards A and B.
In 1924, the federal government transferred administration of the hospital to the newly formed Veterans Bureau. Six years later it would become the Veterans Administration (VA). By 1932, the VA added an additional four hospital wards, a dining hall, a fire station, an administration building and other support structures. Building #9, built in 1930, served as the main nurses’ dorm. In 1932, Building #13 was erected to house African American nurses employed by the VA Hospital.
The current hospital, part of the complex now known as the Charles George VA Medical Center, was built in 1967 in front of the 1928 Administration Building. Over time, ownership of many of the buildings from the 1920s and ‘30s transferred from the federal government to other entities. Today Building #13 is home to the Western Office of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Building #9, to the south of the Western Office, is currently under restoration and is scheduled to open this spring. The Veterans Administration will provide outpatient services in the former dormitory.
Stay tuned. During this centennial year we’ll share bits of history about Oteen.
Western Regional Archives 