Lost Capitol Hill: The Location of Lincoln Hospital

In this quiet week between Christmas and the new year, I have decided to write about something that virtually nobody but I care about, a question that, once I realized it was as yet unanswered, intrigued me greatly. Unfortunately, I do not have a definitive answer, but maybe others with more knowledge than I can jump in and help me out.

When describing its history, the usual story told is that the area that became Lincoln Park was the location of Lincoln Hospital during the Civil War. However, this fails to take into account the fact that the park is only about 7 acres, while the hospital covered somewhere between 19 and 30 acres. Thus, the hospital must have stuck out in some direction. The question therefore is: Which ground, exactly, did Lincoln Hospital cover?

Sadly, no contemporary picture exists that can help out. The best-known image is one that shows the hospital with the Capitol in the distance, but does give any way of determining its location more exactly. All contemporary accounts refer to it being a mile east of the Capitol, but then add that it is ‘near’ Emory hospital, which was actually in Reservation 13, all the way over along the Anacostia River.

One image that does exist is a drawing of the layout of the hospital. In a book of Reports on the Extant and Nature of the Materials Available for the Preparation of a Medical and Surgical History of the Rebellion one report is on “Hospital Organization and Construction.” Within is a good description of Lincoln Hospital, plus a drawing.

It shows a set of wards in a V formation, with the main building at its apex, and enclosing within all the other buildings needed to run the hospital. The whole area is surrounded by a fence. While it is overall a large triangle, the tip and the base are squared off. As this sketch was done to scale, it can be used to determine the size of the hospital, at least that within the fence. From this, the 19 acre size can be calculated. This report also indicates that the total area used by Lincoln Hospital was 30 acres, presumably taking into account the area that was given to the hospital but not enclosed.

If you now rescale this drawing and place it on a contemporary map with the tip exactly 1 mile from the Capitol (which is where 12^th streets intersects with East Capitol Street) then the eastern edge is almost exactly at 14^th Street, while the two flattened sides slide in between A Streets northeast and southeast, while the angled sides fit, approximately, between North Carolina and Massachusetts Avenues.

Drawing of Lincoln Hospital superimposed on an 1857 map of D.C. Note that the map had a seam through the middle, distorting the actual distances. The fit is actually better on a modern map. (Google books and LOC)

So. Does that fully answer the question? It certainly looks like a good fit. Unfortunately, many questions remain. First off, it looks nothing like the print, where the tip of the hospital seems to be pointing well north of the Capitol, rather than straight at it. On the other hand, moving the hospital around anywhere else would impinge on far more streets than just 13^th and East Capitol Streets, as is the case with its location here. But then, the streets back then were more notional than actual, so the planners might well not have taken into account the streets when locating the hospital. What is nice is that it does indeed mean the hospital was a mile from the Capitol, but then, as mentioned above, distances were not terribly well measured at the time either.

Finally, one article states that the hospital stretched from 13^th to 17^th Streets, but this was not published until 1892, leading to questions about its accuracy.

In short, it is unlikely that we will ever be 100% certain where the hospital lay. Locating it here is an intriguing proposition, but can not be taken as a final, definitive answer.