HISTORY TIDBIT: Eighty (80) years ago, on October 19, 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt arrived in Roanoke, Virginia, on a special train to dedicate a new Veterans Administration hospital. This new psychiatric hospital was one of many veterans facilities built between 1918 and the late 1940s to accommodate World War I veterans--known as the Second Generation of Veterans Hospitals. At the time, it was part of the federal government’s largest hospital construction program in history. Still in the midst of the Great Depression, fierce competition took place between hundreds of communities across the nation, and even in the same states, as they vied to have one of the new veterans hospitals located in their vicinities. The new psychiatric veterans hospital was located roughly seven miles away from the train station in Roanoke County near the neighboring community of Salem. General Frank T. Hines, Administrator of the Veterans Administration, along with Virginia Governor, George Peery, countless state and local dignitaries comprised a caravan that accompanied him to the hospital. Thousands of people lined the streets along their route to catch a glimpse of the President. The hospital was known as the Roanoke Veterans Administration Hospital (VAH) and officially opened to veterans on April 22, 1935. On January 29, 1962, it was renamed as Salem. Based on current data, Salem VAMC is the only known VA facility dedicated by a sitting president.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 15:35:27 +0000
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