Featured Preservation Project
Photographic Documentation, Surgeons Row, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina
Location: Naval Hospital Historic District, Camp Lejeune, Onslow County, North Carolina, 28542-0004 roughly bounded by Seth Williams Road (a.k.a. River Road), Cutler Street and Olive Street
Present Owners: United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps Base, Camp Lejeune
Present Use: Quarters and garages
Architectural Description: Colonial Revival
(excerpts taken from the National Register nomination prepared by Stuart Paul Dixon, The Louis Berger Group, Inc., March 2007)
The former Naval Hospital, Building H-1, at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune stands in the middle of the Hadnot Point peninsula located along the east side of the New River near Jacksonville, North Carolina in Onslow County, North Carolina. In addition to the hospital, there are three quarters and associated support structures known as "Surgeon's Row" located along a semi-circular drive connected to the northwestern section of the Seth Williams Road loop that encircles the hospital.
READ MORE (Surgeon's Row)
Building H42, a four-bay, two-car garage, stands a short distance south of quarters, H25 beside the southern curve of the drive. The garage features a side-gable roof covered with asphalt shingles, a poured-concrete foundation and driveway, exposed rafter tails, corner boards, and weatherboard siding. The garage is divided into equal parts with each side having a narrow storage space and a garage space. The storage space is accessed by the six-panel wood doors next to the garage doors and consists of an unfinished space with wood flooring, walls and ceiling. A six-panel door provides access into the garage space. The garage space consists of a concrete floor with wood siding on the north and west walls and drywall or gypsum board south wall (divider added at a later date) and a gypsum board ceiling.
Building H41, another two-car garage, is located on the northern edge of the drive a short distance south of quarters H27. The garage is similar to Building H42 as it has a poured-concrete foundation, asphalt shingled roof, weatherboard siding, corner boards, and exposed rafter tails. A six-panel metal door set within an earlier window opening occupies the west elevation gable end. Two six-over-six wood windows penetrate the garage's western elevation. The interior of the garage is an open floor plan with a concrete floor, wood walls and exposed roof framing.
The utility shed, Building H35, stands a short distance northwest of Building H41 and south of Building H27. The utility building possesses a small rectangular floor plan, a raised concrete foundation, brick stretcher-bond walling, a belt course four courses below a molded wood cornice and partial gable returns. Centrally spaced, paired two-panel doors face the curving drive. A small, one-story wood tractor shed is attached to the rear (northern elevation). The interior of Building H35 was not able to be accessed.
Significance: Criteria A & C (excerpts taken from the National Register nomination prepared by Stuart Paul Dixon, The Louis Berger Group, Inc., March 2007)
Soon after the construction of Camp Lejeune began in late spring 1941, the Department of the Navy began plans for a 500-bed temporary hospital to serve Navy and Marine Corps personnel and civilian employees of the base. Following the Navy custom of locating hospitals near bodies of water somewhat removed from major areas of activity, the Hadnot Point peninsula was chosen as the site for the new hospital. The Naval Hospital of Camp Lejeune copied standard naval hospital design and spatial organization. A three-story administrative building and rear wing housing recreational and subsistence activities formed the central portion of the hospital. Medical wards were erected perpendicular to the administration building in long rectangular wings connected by a central hyphen. Construction of the hospital began in mid-April 1942. In addition to the main hospital building, other support building were constructed including civilian and WAVES nurses' quarters, a 40-bed family hospital, two corpsmen's quarters, a medical warehouse, a garage, a powder house, a laundry, two servants' quarters, a bachelor officer quarters, three single-family quarters for senior officers (Surgeon's Row) and one individual quarters for warrant officers. The hospital is significant under Criterion A for its direct association with the important wartime programs and activities of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. Built in order to provide medical care and treatment to members of Camp Lejeune's resident community, and to assist in the training of corpsmen, pharmacist's mates and hospital attendants for service with the Marines at bases and in the Pacific theater, the Naval Hospital directly participated in the programs of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. Additionally, the hospital is significant under Criterion C as it embodies noteworthy design characteristics or uses materials that distinguish medical facilities within the installation, or that established a prototype or standard for medical facilities. Reflecting noteworthy standard design characteristics developed by the Bureau of Yards and Docks for naval hospitals and incorporating Neocolonial architectural themes utilizing materials and ornament to define and reenforce Camp Lejeune's principal buildings as distinguished structures.
The Surgeon's Row buildings, erected as an integral part of the hospital complex to provide housing for resident medical officers contribute to the significance of the Naval Hospital Historic District.
Date of Construction: 1942
Architect: U.S. Navy, Bureau of Yards and Docks, Carr and J.E. Greiner, Durham, NC and Baltimore, MD
Project Description: Photographic documentation of six (6) contributing resources to the Naval Hospital Historic District was prepared as part of the mitigation for the demolition of the six resources. The six resources included those located along Surgeon's Row: three quarters (Buildings H25, H26 and H27); two garages (Buildings H41 and H42); and the utility shed (Building H35) as well as landscape features such as the circular street/drive, front and rear yards, walkways, streetscape and view to and from the quarters. Digital photographic images of the resources and related landscape features and contexts were completed on May 9, 2011. The photographic documentation included the following:
- Exterior photographs of all four elevations of the six resources, where feasible
- Interior photographs of floor plan and character-defining features of Building H25, vacant quarter
- Interior photographs of character-defining features of Building H27, vacant quarter
- Landscape, setting and context views of six resources including relationship to former Naval Hospital, Building H1.
The photographic documentation was completed in accordance with North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office's Policy and Guidelines: Digital Photography for Historic Property Surveys and National Register Nominations. The photographs were taken by Heather McDonald, Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid-Atlantic. The photographic documentation package includes the following:
- Photo Index
- Photo Site Maps
- Proof sheets of photographs
- Compact Disc with photographs
- Historic aerials of Surgeons Row area (1938, 1950s and 1960s)
- Original construction drawings of quarters and garages
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