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National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Mountain Branch, Barracks No. 2, Lamont & Veterans Way, Johnson City, Washington County, TN

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National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Mountain Branch, Barracks No. 2, Lamont & Veterans Way, Johnson City, Washington County, TN

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Summary

Significance: Barracks No. 2 was designed to house over 400 veterans and serve as a prominent architectural symbol of their care by the Federal government at the Mountain Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteers Soldiers (NHDVS). The NHDVS was a federal institution authorized by Congress in 1865 and charged with caring for Civil War veterans disabled by their military service. Its ninth branch, the Mountain Branch, was a Beaux Arts campus of French Renaissance Revival structures built between 1901 and 1905. Its location in Washington County, Tennessee was chosen at the urging of local Congressman Walter P. Brownlow for its healthful climate and proximity to underserved veterans in Tennessee and other southern states. Although founded for Civil War veterans of the Union Army, the NHDVS membership expanded over the decades to include veterans of the Mexican, Indian, and Spanish American Wars. By 1930 the system had eleven branches and became part of the new Veterans Administration.
The winning competition design for the Mountain Branch by New York architect Joseph H. Freedlander incorporated the latest ideas of comprehensive design and Neoclassicism as taught by the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Freedlander created a hierarchy of communal buildings, barracks, and service functions arranged along a central avenue with views south to the nearby mountains. Barracks No. 2 was one of two so-called "Brownlow barracks" built for veterans residing at the Mountain Branch. Along with Building No. 1, it occupies a prominent location next to the Mess Hall along Dogwood Avenue (originally McMahon Avenue), the main axis of the site plan. Other smaller barracks located to the north on secondary axes had similar plans but plainer, simpler exteriors. Building No. 2's prominent location and ornate limestone and terra cotta exterior made it one of the showpiece French Renaissance Revival structures for the Branch. Three floors and a full basement provided open ward dormitories, bathrooms, recreation rooms, lounges, and storage for the resident veterans.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N1788
Survey number: HABS TN-254-B
Building/structure dates: 1904 Initial Construction

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Date

1901
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Contributors

Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Freedlander, J. H., architect
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Source

Library of Congress
copyright

Copyright info

No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html

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