Old United States Naval Hospital
100 Steiner Street | also 22 Flushing Avenue | Brooklyn Navy Yard | built 1958
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1838
Martin E. Thompson's granite Greek Revival naval hospital is completed in 1838
Work on the Old United States Naval Hospital began in 1830 and finished in 1838, to designs by the architect Martin E. Thompson. The two-story granite building is laid out in an E plan, with a recessed portico on its long side carried by eight square stone piers two stories tall. In 1965 the Landmarks Preservation Commission praised the care in its stonework and woodwork and called it a rare surviving early institutional design.
- 1917
World War I expansion doubles the Brooklyn Naval Hospital's main building to 600 patients
Around 1917, as the United States entered World War I, the hospital needed more room. A new wing doubled the original building's capacity to 600, and the medical supply depot moved to Sands Street so its building could take patients too. Another wing opened in 1920, and together with four other buildings the improvements let the hospital hold 3,000 patients at one time.
“The original hospital building's capacity was doubled to 600 with the construction of a new wing…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1941
The Navy starts its first Cardiac Consultation Service at the Brooklyn Naval Hospital
In 1941 the hospital founded the Navy's first Cardiac Consultation Service. Over the course of World War II the hospital took in 65,197 patients, and the Brooklyn branch of the Red Cross helped with their rehabilitation activities. The Works Progress Administration had refurbished its 37 buildings in preparation for the war, though no new structures were built.
“The Navy's first Cardiac Consultation Service was founded at the hospital in 1941.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1948
The Navy closes Brooklyn Naval Hospital over a congressman's objections
The Navy announced in April 1948 that the hospital would close, and U.S. Representative James J. Heffernan objected. It was decommissioned on June 30 anyway, and most patients went to the newly built St. Albans Naval Hospital in Queens. The site became the United States Naval Receiving Annex, Brooklyn, and after the Navy Yard shut in the 1960s the Navy kept the buildings as offices until 1989.
“Despite objections from U.S. Representative James J. Heffernan, the hospital was officially decommissioned on June 30, 1948.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1965
Landmarks Commission hears backers of the Old Naval Hospital despite Navy objections
On September 21, 1965, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on designating the Old United States Naval Hospital. Four witnesses spoke in favor, including the Deputy Borough President of Brooklyn. A local Navy representative wrote asking that the building be dropped from the calendar, and a Defense Department official said the city had no authority over federal property. The commission acknowledged the question but designated the hospital in a report dated October 14, 1965.
- 2012
Steiner Studios proposes turning the former Naval Hospital site into a media campus
In 2012 Steiner Studios proposed a media campus on the old hospital grounds, as an annex to its existing studio lot just to the west. Restoration of the hospital buildings was planned to start in 2017 and take close to a decade, converting them to production, post-production and support space. The National Register of Historic Places added the hospital in 2014, as part of the whole Navy Yard.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Brooklyn Naval HospitalWikipedia
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