{{Use American English|date=August 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2019}} {{Infobox hospital | name = Naval Hospital Boston | org_group = Navy | image = Boston Naval Hospital Chelsea MA from NPS.jpg | caption = Boston Naval Hospital; a surgeon and others examine a patient in 1919 | logo = | location = Chelsea, Massachusetts | region = | state = Massachusetts | country = US | coordinates = {{Coord|42|23|22.81|N|71|2|51.53|W|}} | healthcare = | type = Military | speciality = | standards = | emergency = | affiliation = | beds = | founded = 1836 | closed = 1974 | website = | other_links = }}
'''Naval Hospital Boston''' was a hospital in Chelsea, Massachusetts. With the closure of the nearby Boston Navy Yard, the hospital closed in 1974.
==History== On January 7, 1836 the Chelsea Naval Hospital was completed and commissioned. Located on a hill on the banks of the Mystic River in Chelsea, MA, it is {{convert|112|ft|m}} above sea level. The original building was built of Vermont granite. The hospital was a three-story building with a 100-bed capacity. A wing was added on the west side of the building in 1865.<ref name=NPS2>{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/maritime/nav.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071102055910/http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/maritime/nav.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 2, 2007|publisher=National Park Service|title=Maritime History of Massachusetts|date=October 20, 2009}}</ref>
Chelsea Naval Hospital was one of the first three hospitals authorized by Congress to accommodate naval personnel. Previously, personnel received treatment at marine hospitals operated by the Department of the Treasury for mariners, both naval and merchant. The hospital served naval personnel and others during the American Civil War, Spanish–American War, World War I and World War II.<ref name=NPS2 />
thumb|left|200px|Chelsea Naval Hospital building In 1970, a plaque in remembrance of Medal of Honor recipient Wayne Maurice Caron, a hospital corpsman, was placed on the grounds of the hospital.<ref name=NPS2 /> In 1973, the hospital and the surrounding grounds were added to the Naval Hospital Boston Historic District.
When it was decommissioned in 1974, it was the oldest naval hospital in service in the United States and consisted of {{convert|88|acre|m2}} of land on the Mystic River. Notable patients during the hospital's history include Presidents John Quincy Adams (after his presidency) and John F. Kennedy (before his presidency).<ref name=NPS2 /> The original hospital buildings were converted into condominiums while adjacent land was dotted with single family townhouses and high rise apartment complexes. Still extant are the perimeter wall and guard shack, pier, chapel, ordnance buildings, nurses' quarters, and the Captain's House. In addition to the redevelopment of the housing and hospital portion of the property, several acres on the Mystic River were taken over by the Metropolitan District Commission for Mary O'Malley Park.
==Historic district==
{{Infobox NRHP | name = Naval Hospital Boston Historic District | nrhp_type = hd | nocat = yes | image = Middle Building.jpg | caption = The small ordnance building in 2009 | location = 1 Broadway, Chelsea, Massachusetts | coordinates = {{coord|42|23|19|N|71|2|45|W|display=inline,title}} | locmapin = Massachusetts#USA | built = 1836 | architect = Multiple | architecture = | added = August 14, 1973 | area = {{convert|87.9|acre}} | refnum = 73000851<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2009a}}</ref> }}
'''Naval Hospital Boston Historic District''' is a historic district at the south end of Broadway, encompassing the area around Naval Hospital Boston. It consists of five buildings, historically the original 1836 Naval hospital, the 1857 Marine hospital, the Commanding Officer's quarters, and two ordnance buildings.<ref name="NPS">{{cite web |date=2009-01-12 |title=Naval Hospital Boston Historic District |url=http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/maritime/nav.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240302162011/http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/maritime/nav.htm |archive-date=March 2, 2024 |publisher=National Park Service}}</ref>
The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
===1836 Naval hospital=== The original hospital was built of granite and was used as personnel quarters after a new hospital was built in 1915; it has been converted into condominiums.<ref name=NPS/>
===1857 Marine hospital=== The Marine hospital was a three-story building built of brick with an I-shaped footprint; a fourth story was added in 1866. The building was returned to the Navy in 1940. It has been converted into condominiums.<ref name=NPS/>
===Commanding Officer's quarters=== Parts of the Commanding Officer's quarters date back to 1856.<ref name=NPS/>
===Ordnance buildings=== thumb|The magazine on right Two buildings on the site were built in the early 19th century to handle ordnance for the United States Navy. The buildings were built by the Bureau of Ordnance and the land was transferred back to the hospital in 1910.<ref name=NPS/>
The larger building was designed to securely store explosives and ordnance and was not intended for human occupancy. It was a building within a building - an 1830s structure, without its original roof, encased within an 1860s structure which added the current exterior walls and a new roof. The architect and engineer Alexander Parris designed the inside structure. The floor is concrete and the interior is raw masonry, unpainted and unfinished. The ceilings are made of brick and include vaults which were designed to contain fire and force explosions upward rather than outward.<ref name=NPS/>
The smaller building was used for quarters after being returned to the hospital, then as storage space.<ref name=NPS/>
==See also== *National Register of Historic Places listings in Suffolk County, Massachusetts * List of military installations in Massachusetts
==References== {{Commons category}} {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070317023959/http://www.olgp.net/chs/hospital/naval.htm Chelsea Naval Hospital]}}, Chelsea Historical Society *[https://web.archive.org/web/20071102055910/http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/maritime/nav.htm nps.gov]
{{Hospitals in Massachusetts}} {{NRHP in Suffolk County, Massachusetts}} {{authority control}}
Category:Medical installations of the United States Navy Category:Hospital buildings completed in 1836 Category:Hospital buildings completed in 1865 Category:Hospitals in Suffolk County, Massachusetts Category:Chelsea, Massachusetts Category:Installations of the United States Navy in Massachusetts Category:Defunct hospitals in Massachusetts Category:1836 establishments in Massachusetts Category:1974 disestablishments in Massachusetts Category:Military installations closed in 1974 Category:National Register of Historic Places in Chelsea, Massachusetts Category:Former installations of the United States Navy Category:Military installations established in 1836 Category:Historic districts in Suffolk County, Massachusetts Category:Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts