Old Post Hospital

Old Post Hospital. . "Although the post-Civil War era, 1866-98, saw little serious American military action, it was a period of progressive change and innovation that produced the golden age of American military medicine." , The Oxford Companion to American Military History, 1999, From 1864 to 1899 this was Wright Army Hospital, the Presidio's main medical facility. Army physicians and Medical Corpsmen treated soldiers in this 50 bed hospital. The building's Greek Revival architecture is reminiscent of the hotels of Gold Rush San Francisco. Originally facing west towards the parade ground, in 1878 the building was reoriented and this became the front entrance. The octagonal wing on the north end was added in 1897 for a surgery and a laboratory. This building later housed the post dental clinic, drug rehabilitation clinic, dispensary and the Presidio Army Museum., The large influx of sick and wounded troops returning from the Philippine War in 1899 required a larger hospital built two blocks to the east. That hospital became Letterman General Hospital, today the Thoreau Center for Sustainability., Captions , Top: The Post Hospital in the 1880s with Officers' Row. The one-story wing to the left was the morgue, since demolished. In the left foreground, behind the sign, is the end of the track of the Presidio Railroad of 1881 which later became the Presidio and Ferries Railroad. Park Archives , Bottom left: The Post dental clinic in 1954. Park Archives , Bottom right: Post Dispensary staff in 1942-43. Park Archives