History

St. Cloud VA Health Care System

St. Cloud Veterans Administration Hospital Historic District
National Register of Historic Places

Six months after the U.S. entered World War I in April 1917, Congress authorized a new array of benefits specifically for World War I Veterans, which included women, Native Americans, National Guard, and militia Veterans. These new comprehensive benefits exceeded those previously provided to Veterans of America's earlier wars and included disability compensation, life insurance for service personnel and Veterans, medical and dental care, hospitals and clinics, vocational training and rehabilitation for the disabled, prosthetics, and burial benefits.

Eligible Veterans of all American wars prior to 1917 continued to receive benefits from the Pension Bureau (Interior Department), National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, and War Department.

By the war’s end in November 1918, three new federal agencies administered a majority of benefits to World War I Veterans exclusively: the Bureau of War Risk Insurance (Treasury Department), Public Health Service (Treasury Department), and Federal Board of Vocational Education. In March 1919, the largest federal hospital construction program in history (at that time) was authorized by Congress in order to provide medical facilities for World War I Veterans. World War I Veterans received medical care and rehabilitation at National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (origins of VA health care), military hospitals, Marine hospitals, and hundreds of civilian hospitals until construction of new World War I Veterans hospitals was completed.

The Federal Board of Hospitalization and the American College of Surgeons determined that the new federal World War I Veterans hospitals should be classified as one of three types: general medical and surgical, tuberculosis, or neuropsychiatric. The first World War I Veterans hospital opened at Palo Alto, California, at the Army’s former Camp Fremont, on April 1, 1919. On August 9, 1921, the first consolidation of federal Veterans benefits took place when the Bureau of War Risk Insurance, Public Health Service Veterans’ hospitals, and the Rehabilitation Division of the Federal Board of Vocational Education were merged to form the Veterans Bureau.

Public Act 194 of the 67th Congress, also referred to as the second Langley Bill, was approved by Congress on April 20, 1922 and called for an appropriation of $17 million for the construction of 12 Veterans hospitals. A 500-bed neuropsychiatric hospital for Veterans Bureau District No. 10, which included the states of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana, was authorized as part of that law. Local efforts to secure land near St. Cloud for the proposed hospital were led by boosters Mr. and Mrs. J.P. McDowell. The St. Cloud Commercial Club staged a pledge drive in the summer of 1922 and raised upwards of $60,000 for the acquisition of 310 acres of farmland on the Sauk River. Deeds for the property, comprised of tracts owned by A.C. Cooper, E.P. Schwab, J.B. Murphy, and B. Lammerson, were obtained and forwarded to the U.S. Veterans Bureau.

The initial 12 buildings of the St. Cloud campus were designed, with construction supervised by, the Department of the Navy’s Bureau of Yards and Docks for the Veterans Bureau. U.S. Veterans Bureau Hospital No. 101 at St. Cloud was officially dedicated by Veterans Bureau Director, General Frank T. Hines, on September 17, 1924. The St. Cloud facility was the first federal hospital for disabled Veterans to be constructed in the Veterans Bureau’s tenth district. Dr. Hans Hansen was St. Cloud’s first hospital director. On September 24, 1924, Eddie Lomacks was admitted as the hospital’s first patient. Lomacks remained a resident of the hospital until his death on January 21, 1964.

World War I was the first fully mechanized war, and as a result, soldiers who were exposed to mustard gas, other chemicals and fumes required specialized care after the war. Tuberculosis and neuro-psychiatric hospitals opened to accommodate Veterans with respiratory or mental health problems. A majority of existing VA hospitals and medical centers began as National Home, Public Health Service, or, as was the case at St. Cloud, as Veterans Bureau hospitals.

In 1923, women Veterans were admitted to the National Homes for the first time in history. The World War Act in 1924 opened the doors of Veterans Bureau hospitals to women and Veterans benefits were liberalized for the second time history to cover disabilities that were not service-related.

The second consolidation of federal Veterans programs took place on July 21, 1930, when President Herbert Hoover signed Executive Order 5398.  The National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers and Pension Bureau (Interior Dept.) were merged with the Veterans Bureau, elevated as a federal administration, and renamed as the Veterans Administration.

The inter-war period saw rapid expansion of the original St. Cloud campus as additional lands were acquired and several new buildings were constructed. Approximately 1,300 Veterans were receiving care at the St. Cloud hospital in May 1947. At that time, the facility consisted of forty-seven buildings on 577 acres, and employed a work force of 860.

While in the midst of World War II, Congress authorized some of the most significant Veteran benefits in history as part of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944. Commonly known as the “G.I. Bill,” signed on June 22, 1944, the law extended some of the nation’s oldest Veterans’ benefits - such as disability and widows pensions - along with new ones, to those who served in World War II. It is said the GI Bill had more impact on the American way of life than any law since the Homestead Act of 1862 and helped create America’s middle class. The GI Bill placed VA second to the War and Navy Departments in funding and personnel priorities.

Modernizing VA for a new generation of Veterans in a world that had entered the nuclear age was crucial and replacement of the “Old Guard” World War I leadership became a necessity. In 1945 General Omar Bradley was appointed by President Harry Truman to lead VA into the modern era.  With General Bradley at the helm, VA formally established its Department of Medicine and Surgery which led to groundbreaking changes such as medical school affiliations, internships and residency programs, medical and prosthetic research, nuclear medicine, training programs for psychiatrists, and much more.  Since changes implemented under Bradley in 1945-47, VA has become a world leader in medical scientific research, prosthetics, and Veterans’ health care.

Out of more than 200 hospitals that VA has operated since 1866 (includes predecessors), the St. Cloud VA Medical Center is one of only 30 World War I Veterans hospitals still in active service.  Its stately and inspiring Classical Revival architecture are iconic symbols that embody the grand ideals and aspirations of our nation, while reflecting our government’s values, dedication, and commitment to its patriots, in those years immediately after World War I.

The St. Cloud VA Hospital Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 21, 2012, because of its significance to the history and evolution of American medicine and Veterans care, its representation of World War I-era federal architecture, and its role in providing quality health care to World War I Veterans after the war. Thousands of Veterans from Minnesota received neuropsychiatric care from 1923 to 1950.  Since 1950 it has served thousands of American Veterans from modern-era wars. The St. Cloud VA Hospital Historic District continues to serve as a physical reminder of medical care provided by the federal government through the Veterans Bureau and the VA to Veterans.

Learn More 

Read the National Register of Historic Places Nomination form for the St. Cloud VA 

Read (Almost) A Century of Service, an overview of the history and significance of the St. Cloud VA