Talk:Marine Hospital Service
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Greetings. My name is Mike and I wrote this entry. Please feel free to edit it as needed. I will try to add some more info myself, also. I may be contacted via e-mail at: tidus@jetsetradio.zzn.com
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- Following are personal comments from the user above (the article creator) that were moved from the article to talk. Christopher Parham (talk) 23:23, 2005 July 15 (UTC)
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- There is not, as far as I know, any comprehensive book or even a decent peer-reviewed article about the history of these hospitals which contains information on their architects, design, and technological innovations. This is both odd and sad, given that these hospitals are unique to American health care and the service that ran them was more or less the place of origin for every extant Federal health service or program we have today. Also, as far as I know, no hospital has been perserved as a musuem to Marine Hospital Service, either. The records--both medical-oriented and fiscal--for these institutions sit in storage at the National Library of Medicine on the National Institutes of Health Bethesda, MD, campus.
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- Currently, the Presidio of San Francisco--which is now a National Park--is considering options for the future of its Public Health Service hospital, a structure built in 1932 with additions in the 1950s. This imposing structure may become mixed-use space for homes and offices, which would be a worthy application of its space in the scope of San Francisco's tight geography and apartment market, but one must hope the history of the sturcture as a hospital will somehow be remembered. The National Park Service seems to be dealing with the prospects for the old hospital with due care and concern (not an easy task, with some in the local neighborhood objecting to any measures to renovate the hospital--which has been vacant since the late 1980s--because of the traffic problems it might cause in their tony digs). However, a complete visual and written survey of the hospital recording (as best is possible now) the aesthetic and functional aspects of the hospital during its glory days seems prudent.
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- The Marine Hospitals and Public Health Service Hospitals are just one aspect of American history that I stumbled upon as a student of both architectural history and the history of medicine. I have to wonder how many other obscure yet important Federal programs like this which have helped shape our nation are neglected by professional historians and the general public alike?
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- The current design review process for the former Public Health Service Hospital of the Presidio of San Francisco can be found on the following site maintained by the National Park Service:
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- The National Library of Medicine has a guide to the documents culled from various PHS hospitals when these closed (read: all the paperwork got shipped off to Washington). This would be a good place for scholars to start if interested in the in-depth history of the hospitals:
