The Marine Hospital is located along the Mississippi River, south of downtown Memphis in the French Fort community. In 1798, President Adams established the Marine Hospital Service to care for injured and disabled seamen working on the Mississippi River. The hospital was a precursor to the Public Health Service. Established in 1884, the Marine Hospital campus cared for wounded Civil War soldiers and conducted scientific research in the hopes of finding a cure for yellow fever.
The original campus consisted of six buildings: the stable, two wards, the surgeon’s house, the administrative building, and nurses’ quarters. 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. Two of those early buildings remain, the Executive Building and the Laundry-Kitchen (later known as the Nurses Quarters). The administrative building and the nurses’ quarters were moved 300 feet by wagons pulled by mules to make room for the new WPA hospital. The wards and stables were eventually demolished. The administrative building was repurposed as a museum.
The present-day Colonial Revival-style U.S. Marine Hospital Building was constructed on the site in 1934-1936, followed by its associated Steam Laundry 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, both the Executive Building and the Laundry-Kitchen, were shifted about 100-feet out to the northwest and northeast respectively. The western end of the hospital grounds were sold to the City of Memphis shortly after the facility closed in 1960, and was later leased to the National Ornamental Metal Museum. The Marine Hospital was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
In 2003, the federal government sold the eastern portion of the complex containing the Marine Hospital, the Nurses Quarters and the Steam Laundry to a private group headed by Lauren and Hilliard Crews. The redevelopment was nearly complete by October 2020. Today, the complex is known as The Marine Residence and houses 71 pet-friendly apartments.
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Abandoned Southeast 
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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