The U.S. Marine Hospital is located along the Mississippi River, south of downtown Memphis in the French Fort community. The history of the Marine Hospital dates back to 1798 when President Adams established the Marine Hospital Service to care for injured and disabled seamen working on the Mississippi River and was a precursor to the Public Health Service. The first hospital to support this region was located in Napoleon, Arkansas, but washed away when the Mississippi River changed course in the 1870s. The current site was selected in 1881 and was an area known as Fort Pickering, a town eight years older and at the time larger than Memphis. The hospital opened in 1884 and consisted of six buildings – the stable, two wards, the surgeon’s house, the executive building, and the nurses’ quarters. The facility was originally used to treat Civil War veterans and to conduct scientific research in the hopes of finding a cure for yellow fever.
The Marine Hospital was the city’s first federally-funded public health facility, and until after World War I, was the only government hospital in the area. During the 1930s, several new Works Progress Administration buildings were added to the site. Only two of the early buildings remain, the executive building and the nurses’ quarters. Both of these buildings were moved 300 feet by wagons pulled by mules to make room for the new WPA hospital in the 1930s. The wards and stables were eventually demolished. The administrative building was later repurposed as a museum until 2022. Both were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The present-day Colonial Revival-style hospital building was constructed on the site in 1934-1936, followed by its associated steam laundry building in a Modernist style in 1939. A couple of other smaller buildings were constructed as staff quarters at the same time just west of the hospital along what is now Metal Museum Drive. In order to make room for the large three-story, three-wing hospital. The western portion of the hospital grounds was sold to the City of Memphis shortly after closing in 1960 and later leased to the National Ornamental Metal Museum in 1979. Throughout the years, the hospital was used by the Coast Guard, cadets from the state maritime academies, active-duty armed forces, Public Health officials, the Army Corps of Engineers, and government employees injured in the line of duty. Most recently the grounds were leased in the 1990s by the Army during Desert Storm to house soldiers.
In 2003, the federal government sold the eastern portion of the complex containing the 1930s-era marine hospital, the nurses’ quarters, and the steam laundry to a private group headed by Lauren and Hilliard Crews. After several attempts at redevelopment, construction finally began in 2019. Today, the complex is known as The Marine Residence and houses 71 pet-friendly apartments.
In 2022, I returned to the former Marine Hospital to photograph the renovation.
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Stunning imagery x
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Thank you!
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How amazing to see that your latest post was about the very hospital my father recuperated in during WWII! what are the odds of that happening? beautiful pictures. They helped me “see” where my father stayed and I could easily imagine the rooms filled with doctors, nurses and patients. thank you so much for highlighting this part of our history!
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That’s amazing! Thank you for stopping by and sharing.
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Wow – I’ve been so inspired by what I’m reading in the company of some great wordsmiths. But this kicks it up a notch. Photojournalism at its finest. Great show, Abandoned – thanks!
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Thanks for sharing.
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Definitely agree with askriverbed above – you are a brilliant photojournalist – I am really enjoying going through your posts!
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Was there water damage to the inside? I wonder why the walls are peeling so badly?
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Humidity
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I really can’t believe how great this site is. Keep up the good work. I’m going to tell all my friends about this place.
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I hardly leave comments, but I browsed some of the responses here. I do have a few questions for you if it’s allright. Is it only me or does it appear like some of the remarks come across like they are left by brain dead visitors? 😛 And, if you are writing on additional online social sites, I would like to keep up with anything new you have to post. Could you make a list of the complete urls of your social sites like your Facebook page, twitter feed, or linkedin profile?
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http://www.facebook.com/AbandonedSoutheast
IG: @abandoned_southeast
Twitter : @AbandonedSE
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Normally I don’t read post on blogs, however I wish to say that this write-up very pressured me to try and do so!
Your writing taste has been amazed me. Thanks, very nice post.
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I lived in Memphis most of my life and I didn’t know half the history of the hospital. Thank you for that. However, I noticed in all the sites on the Marine Hospital, the Indian Mound in the now Chickasaw Heritage Park across from the hospital is not mentioned. I think that is an interesting part of the hospital since the hospitalized could see it from their windows.
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Loved reading this and seeing the pictures. I’ve seen this place a few times from the outside. I’m confused though- You say it housed soldiers during Desert Storm, but that it closed permanently in 1965.
On another note, I was reading today about a plan to turn it into apartments. I like the idea but I don’t know if I want to live somewhere that had a morgue in the basement!
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I lived on the grounds. My dad was a dentist there in 1954 Would love to see more pictures.
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As of Oct 2021 it looks like it’s been renovated into apartments and is now called The Marine Residence Apartments. Wish I could’ve seen it before it was renovated!
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It is nice to see it finally renovated.
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