The Fort Defiance Indian Hospital Physician s Cottage Garage, constructed in is significantly associated with the expansion of the original Fort Defiance Hospital into a 100-bed general hospital in From the late to delivery of government health services to the Navajo Nation proliferated. There was a two-fold increase in the number of medical facilities; specific programs directed at eradicating tuberculosis and trachoma were initiated; and concomitantly, there was a dramatic increase in the number of medical employees. Secondly, the Fort Defiance Indian Hospital Physician s Cottage Garage is specifically associated with the Fort Defiance Indian Hospital Physician s Cottage (HABS AZ-227-A) because the garage served as a location for the residents of that cottage to park their vehicles.
Description: The two-car garage is a wood-frame structure, 20 x 20 , with a concrete slab foundation and a conventionally framed hip roof with exposed rafter tails, now covered with asphalt shingles. The walls have a stucco finish, with a decorative diamond, or jazzed pattern. The two garage doors, although tilt-up types, were intended to appear as paired diagonal wood plank doors each with three horizontal lights. There is also a simple wood panel 2 -6 door on the north fa ade, at the rear of the garage. History: Part I. Historical Information A. Physical History 1. Date of erection: 2. Architect: Fort Defiance Indian Hospital Physician s Cottage Garage AZ-227-B (Page 2) Not known.
It is likely that the Physician s Cottage Garage was a standard plan rendered by designers or engineers working for the Office of Indian Affairs in Washington, 3. Original and subsequent owners, occupants, uses: The Fort Defiance Physician s Cottage was originally owned by the Office of Indian Affairs, known as the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) after The building remained under the jurisdiction of the BIA, Navajo Area Office, until Congress transferred Native American health services to the Public Health Service part of the Department of Health Education and Welfare, in It remained under the control of the PHS under the Division of Indian Health until when the Indian Health Service (IHS) was created. 4. Builder, contractor, suppliers: Not Known. 5.
Original plans and construction: The garage appears as it did originally, except for replacement roofing. 6. Alterations and additions: The garage is unchanged, except for a reroofing, with asphalt shingles, probably done within the last twenty years. B. Historical Context The Fort Defiance Indian Hospital Physician s Cottage Garage is a part of the Fort Defiance Indian Hospital complex (HABS AZ-227) and readers are directed to that record for historic context information on the complex itself. The Fort Defiance Indian Hospital Physician s Cottage Garage is an ancillary building to the Fort Defiance Indian Hospital Physician s Cottage (HABS AZ-227-A) and was constructed to house vehicles that belonged to residents of that cottage.
For historic context information on the Physician s Cottage, readers are directed to record HABS AZ-227-A for additional information. On the remote and rugged Navajo Reservation reliable transportation was second only to the doctor s bag as a necessary part of the physician s arsenal against disease. Just as medical tools had to be protected by a bag, vehicles also needed protection -- especially from the frigid winters in the Fort Defiance area where temperatures regularly dipped to double digits below zero. Maintaining a vehicle in serviceable condition so that it could be ready on a moment s notice to tend to an emergency made a garage a necessary ancillary building to the physician s cottage.
Historian Robert Trennert, in his book-length treatment of physicians working on the Navajo Reservation, noted that trying to bring medical care to remote parts of the Fort Defiance Indian Hospital Physician s Cottage Garage AZ-227-B (Page 3) reservation proved frustrating for government physicians because of the great distances involved and the rugged terrain. 1 One of the most pressing arguments for the construction of hospitals and medical facilities at central locations on the reservation was the desire to eliminate long and laborious travel on the part of the physicians. Time spent traveling could be better spent doing medical work so it was best to bring the patients to the doctor. Nonetheless, there remained many times where the physician had to go the patient.
This was particularly true in the early years of health service on the reservation when the Navajo were first becoming more accepting of Anglo medicine. Physicians and nurses spent a considerable amount of time in outreach activities during the twenties and thirties before centralized hospitals, sanatoria, and clinics were constructed. For these activities the doctors and nurses needed reliable transportation. Facilities such as garages were a necessary part of the built environment at Fort Defiance. When officials of the Indian Service began expanding the Fort Defiance Hospital into a 100-bed facility in having residential facilities for the doctors associated with the hospital was a key component of the building program.
When the hospital opened in two physician s cottages were constructed as part of the project. Each physician s cottage had a garage, of which HABS AZ-227-B is one. Although the White Oak Environmental Alliance report indicates that the garage was constructed in it is more likely that the building was constructed in based on its appearance and association with the Physician s Cottage. Accordingly, is used as the construction date for this building.2
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