Marine Hospital Service

The Marine Hospital Service was an organization of Marine Hospitals dedicated to the care of ill and disabled seamen in the United States Merchant Marine, the U.S. Coast Guard and other federal beneficiaries. The Marine Hospital Service evolved into the U.S. Public Health Service.

It was the point of origin for several components of the current Public Health Service, including the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, the National Institutes of Health, and multiple programs now incorporated into the Health Resources and Services Administration.

The Division of Domestic Quarantine became the Division of States Relations and then the in 1943.^[10] This bureau would eventually give rise to the modern Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as the HRSA Bureau of Health Workforce and Healthcare Systems Bureau.^[10]^[19]

Bureau of State Services

The Division of Scientific Research became the . The Environmental Health Divisions (predecessor of the Environmental Protection Agency and FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health), and the Division of Industrial Hygiene (predecessor of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health), were spun off from it in the mid-20th century.^[10]^[20]^[21]

National Institutes of Health

The Division of Foreign Quarantine eventually became the CDC .^[22]^[23]

Division of Global Migration and Quarantine

The Division of Sanitary Reports and Statistics was an ancestor of the CDC .^[10]

National Center for Health Statistics

Temporary Boston hospital at Castle Island, 1800

Norfolk, Virginia hospital, 1800

Second Boston hospital at Charlestown Navy Yard, 1804

Fourth Boston hospital in Chelsea, Massachusetts, 1827

Stapleton, Staten Island hospital, 1831*

Charleston, South Carolina hospital, 1833*

Mobile, Alabama hospital, 1843*

Lahaina, Hawaii hospital, 1844*

Key West, Florida hospital, 1845*

First New Orleans hospital at Algiers, 1847

Natchez, Mississippi hospital, 1852

Louisville, Kentucky hospital, 1852*

Cleveland hospital, 1852

First Chicago hospital at Fort Dearborn, 1852

Paducah, Kentucky hospital, 1852

First San Francisco hospital at Rincon Point, 1854

Fifth Boston hospital in Chelsea, Massachusetts, 1857*

Detroit hospital, 1857

St. Louis hospital, 1858

Portland, Maine hospital, 1859*

First Cincinnati hospital, 1860

Second New Orleans hospital, never completed, abandoned 1860

Galena, Illinois hospital, 1861*

Second Chicago hospital, 1873

Second San Francisco hospital at the Presidio, 1875

Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts hospital, 1879*

Second Cincinnati hospital in the former Kilgour Mansion, 1882

Third New Orleans hospital, 1883

Port Townsend, Washington hospital, 1883

Memphis, Tennessee hospital, 1884*

Cairo, Illinois hospital, 1886

Baltimore hospital, 1887*

Evansville, Indiana hospital, 1892

Tuberculosis sanatorium at Fort Stanton, New Mexico, 1898*

Second Wilmington, North Carolina hospital, 1898

Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, 1902*

Savannah, Georgia hospital, 1906*

Second Pittsburgh hospital, 1909*

Buffalo, New York hospital, 1909*

The hospitals themselves were, by the middle of the 19th century, fairly imposing and architecturally grand structures in many cases. As long as ample federal funding was available for their construction, these hospitals were impressive examples of government-provided health care. The hospitals of the early 20th century in major port cities such as New Orleans, San Francisco, and Savannah displayed ornate architectural detail and reflected many of the changes sweeping medicine at the time.

In addition to the major hospitals, many lower-class hospitals and clinics existed.^[10]^[24]

A chronological gallery of hospitals constructed prior to 1912 follow, showing the year operations began as a U.S. Marine Hospitals. Not all hospitals are shown. Structures that are still extant are marked with an asterisk (*).

Timeline of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps

United States Public Health Service

The National Library of Medicine has a to the documents culled from various PHS hospitals when these closed.

guide

- Website of the U.S. Hospital Foundation, which is restoring the Marine Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky.