Potomac Annex Historic District (Washington Naval - View this location on map  The Potomac Annex Historic District encompasses a complex of Navy buildings on a prominent hill adjacent to the Potomac in Foggy Bottom. It is associated with the first Naval Observatory and a series of U.S. Naval medical institutions, which constituted a sophisticated and influential medical facility renowned for the treatment and care of Navy personnel, research into naval medical issues, and the training of naval medical personnel. The institutions work in these areas improved medical practices and care not only within the Navy, but also in the medical field in general, particularly through advances in areas such as tropical medicine, chemical warfare, aviation medicine, venereal disease, and other contagious diseases. The medical complex had an important association with World War I, treating thousands of servicemen during this period. The war quadrupled the hospital s annual patient load, requiring the construction of additional facilities to handle the increased number of patients and staff. In addition, the Medical School was affected, entering important new fields of medical training and research relevant to the war effort. Among the school s endeavors during this period was the training of the epidemiological and sanitary units deployed to the front. The Potomac Annex site was set aside as Original Appropriation No. 4 in the Plan of the City of Washington. Although L Enfant anticipated use of the site for defensive battlements, the District Commissioners set it aside for a National University which never materialized. In 1842, President Tyler selected the site as the permanent home of the Depot of Charts and Instruments (established 1830), and authorized the construction of a naval observatory to make the astronomical observations essential for navigation. The observatory occupied the site until 1893, and after its relocation, the property was transferred to the Navy s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery to serve as a Museum of Hygiene. The bureau and its laboratories were recognized as the site of significant research in medical issues related to naval service. In 1902, the Naval Medical School established in Brooklyn in 1893 was also relocated to the site. It shared the old observatory, and upon disbanding of the museum in 1905, expanded to occupy the entire structure. In 1903, Congress authorized construction of a Washington Naval Hospital at the site, to replace the old Naval Hospital near the Navy Yard. The new hospital was built just south of the observatory, followed by separate wards and staff quarters, designed in a similar style to create a unified campus. The hospital was used heavily during World War I and the influenza epidemic of 1918. A dental school was established in 1923, and a program in aviation medicine in 1927. By 1930, the facility had become inadequate, and the Navy proposed replacement of all buildings with a new hospital, but in 1937 Congress authorized relocation to a new site. The hospital moved to Bethesda in 1942, and the complex became the administrative headquarters of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. 23rd and E Streets, NW, Washington , DC Historical |