U.S. Veterans Hospital No. 62, Duplex Quarters, 1 Freedom Way, Augusta

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2424-B. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The four identical duplex quarters buildings, a single family home and three garage buildings form the quarters area at the Charlie Norwood Veterans Affairs Medical Center. These buildings are arranged in a U-shape around a grassy courtyard that follows the axis of a large three-building complex to the west. This complex served as the original building for the hospital and formed an intact historic district with the quarters area. The buildings are significant for their use as on-site housing for senior medical staff, following a former policy of the Department of Veterans Affairs. They are also significant as part of an early boom period in standardized veteran hospital construction. U.S. VETERANS HOSPITAL DUPLEX QUARTERS HABS No. GA-2424-B (Page 2) PART I. HISTORICAL INFORMATION A.

Physical History: 1. Date of erection: This was one of two identical duplex buildings erected in numbered as Building Nos. 29 and 30 for the veteran hospital campus. Two more of the same buildings were built in labeled Building Nos. 32 and 33 by the hospital. In July the local newspaper reported that the contract for the "construction of the commandant's and officers' quarters" had been awarded. 1 By August, work had begun on several projects at the Lenwood Veterans Hospital, including the construction of "several cottages," which were to be completed in 90 days. 2 Original architectural plans available for the building are dated April 15, 3 2. Architects: Not known 3. Original and subsequent owners: The U.S. Veterans Bureau was the original owner. The U.S.

Veterans Bureau was absorbed into the new U.S. Veterans Administration in 4 4. Original and subsequent uses: This was originally used as housing for senior staff at the U.S. Veterans Hospital No. 62. When a change in policy in the early discontinued this housing provision, the buildings were rented out to staff. In the rental rates were adjusted to compete with surrounding prices but did not attract new renters. The buildings were subsequently closed. 1 Anonymous, "Contract Is Awarded For Additional Buildings at Lenwood Hospital Here," The Augusta Chronicle, 1 July 7. 2 Anonymous, "Work Started on New Additions at Lenwood Hospital," The Augusta Chronicle, 2 August 2. 3 U.S. Veterans Bureau, "Officers Duplex Quarters Nos. 29 & 30, U.S. Veterans Hospital No.

62, Augusta, GA," April 15, Available from the Charlie Norwood Veterans Medical Center, Augusta, GA. 4 Robinson E. Adkins, Medical Care of Veterans, report prepared by the Veterans Administration Department of Medicine and Surgery (Washington, GPO, U.S. VETERANS HOSPITAL DUPLEX QUARTERS HABS No. GA-2424-B (Page 3) 5. Contractor, Suppliers: Contractor: Jones Construction Company, Charlotte, NC 5 Structural Engineer: Not known Mechanical Engineer: Not known Electrical Engineer: Not known Civil Engineer: Not known 6. Original Plans and construction: There are original plans for this building type executed by the U.S. Veterans Bureau. Labeled "Officers Duplex Quarters Nos. 29 and 30" the plans covered two buildings with a single set of drawings. 7.

Alterations and additions: The two side porches were enclosed and metal-framed louver windows installed in the walls to create a sunroom, likely in the considering the style of the windows. The kitchens were altered with new cabinets and countertops, likely around the or given the materials used. B. Historical Context Residential requirements for staff of veterans hospitals constructed between the and generated unique and well-built homes and dormitories. Part of a unified campus atmosphere, these buildings contributed to the "second generation" hospitals for veterans built during this period. This set of hospital campuses often used standardized plans, architecture that complemented the host city, and a unified aesthetic appearance in the buildings and landscape.

They represent the first building wave of the fledgling Veterans Bureau as it established its new authority as a federal agency in the early The duplex building type at CNVAMC is an example of this wave of construction. There were two built at the same time, utilizing the same building plans and details. They were located on the north and south sides of an oval-shaped courtyard. In two more duplexes were built to the west of the existing 5 Anonymous, "Work Started. " U.S. VETERANS HOSPITAL DUPLEX QUARTERS HABS No. GA-2424-B (Page 4) duplexes, utilizing the same standardized plans and fa~ade but using a reversed plan. The only visible differences between the and buildings were the doors.

The Veterans Administration discontinued the requirement for on-campus housing of senior staff by the when this building was rented out to general medical staff. This practice ceased in the when rent rates increased, and the veterans hospital closed the buildings. Part II. ARCHITECTURAL INFORMATION A. General Statement 1. Architectural character: This is a Colonial Revival duplex with minimal ornamentation on its symmetrical fa~ade. It has six bays on the fa~ade, the two central bays each have a single door entry. The two left bays and two right bays are each in a larger projecting bay with a front gable roof, intersecting the lateral gable of the building. The front gables have cornice returns and semi-circular lights, characteristics that are repeated in the side gables.

The sides of the building have projecting single- story, flat-roofed sunrooms but the rear side is more simplistic, with a single plane. Two central, single doors on this side feature shed-roof door hoods with scroll-sawn brackets, and have stoops and stairs leading to the backyard. The four bays of the rear side are somewhat symmetrical, and windows are doubled on both stories of the left and right bays. 2. Condition of fabric: The exterior fabric of the building is in good condition, although paint failure over the entire exterior generates a poor appearance. The interior in also in good condition, there is no obvious visible evidence of structural failure or water infiltration. B. Description of Exterior: U.S. VETERANS HOSPITAL DUPLEX QUARTERS HABS No. GA-2424-B (Page 5) 1.

Overall dimensions: This is a two-and-a-half story building with a symmetrical six-bay fagade and symmetrical four-bay rear, and two-bays on the sides. This rectangular structure has single-story sunrooms on the sides. Oriented with a north-facing fagade, the duplexes are divided by a central north to south wall, creating two square-shaped single-family living quarters. There are single-bay concrete landings in front of the two entrances on the fagade and rear, each approached by concrete stairs. 2. Foundation: The foundation is poured concrete, forming basement walls and exposed for approximately two feet above the ground level around the exterior of the building.

It is approximately 8" thick and is stuccoed on the exterior, the interior walls reveal markings from the wood forms and are painted. The basement floor is concrete and the unfinished ceiling exposes joists. 3. Walls: Wood frame walls are clad on the exterior in weatherboard siding. 4. Structural Systems, framing: The poured concrete basement walls form the foundation for the exterior walls and the interior dividing wall between the duplexes. The interior dividing wall is built of brick above the basement level, and is exposed in the attic. An interior poured concrete wall in the basement, parallel to the central dividing wall, supports the load-bearing hallway wall above on the first floor.

A steel I-beam in the floor of the first story supports the wall above that divides the kitchen from the butler's pantry. Load-bearing walls on the first story 5. Stoops, porticoes: There are two small stoops on the fagade, each is a single bay across the single-door entries. The concrete stoops have concrete steps with narrow cross-hatched steel strips attached to the edges of the treads. An iron picket balustrade flanks each set of stairs and surrounds the stoop landing. The side elevations have a single-story, wood-frame porch converted into sunroom around the These sunrooms retain the flat roof and rectangular U.S. VETERANS HOSPITAL DUPLEX QUARTERS HABS No. GA-2424-B (Page 6) footprint of the original porches, and span two of the three bays on the sides of the building.

There are two small stoops on the rear, each is a single bay across the two single-door entries. The concrete stoops have concrete stairs with wood picket balustrades on the landings and doubled iron railings as the balustrade along the steps. 6. Openings a. Doorways and doors: There are a total of eight exterior doors on this building, two on the fagade, one on each side, and four on the rear. The two doors on the f agade are the main entries to the duplexes, and they are in the central two bays. Exactly alike in appearance, the wood door surrounds each have smooth pilasters rising up to a pediment over a fanlight above the door. The wood doors have nine lights over a single recessed panel. A metal screen door has been added to the doors.

Doors on the sides of the house lead out from the sunrooms, and are wood frames around louver windows. Two central doors on the rear have a shed-roof door hood with scroll-sawn brackets. The wood doors are the same as the front doors, with nine lights over a recessed panel. Trim around the doors is simple and flat, with no ornamentation. There are basement doors approached by steep exterior, concrete stairs on the back of the building. The doors are nine lights over two recessed panels. There is very small wood trim around the doors, which are inset into the poured concrete basement walls. An exterior wood screen door has been added to each basement door. b. Windows and shutters: Original drawings for this building show shutters on almost all of the exterior windows.

They were to be louver style with a crescent moon in a top panel. Fenestration on the building is symmetrical. The f agade has six bays on the first story and four on the second story, each with a single, U.S. VETERANS HOSPITAL DUPLEX QUARTERS HABS No. GA-2424-B (Page 7) six-over-six wood-frame, double-hung sash window. Metal-framed storm windows have been added to these windows. There are semi-circular lights in the front gables on the fagade. These same lights are found in the gables on the sides of the building, which have three bays in the second story, each with a single, six-over-six, wood- frame double-hung sash window. The one-story sunrooms on each side have banks of louvered windows on their fagade and side walls.

The rear of the building is divided into four bays, the left and right bays have doubled, six-over-six, wood-frame, double-hung sash windows in both the first and second stories. The two center bays have a single sash window on the second story with a single door and adjacent single, sash window on the first story. Windows on the rear and around the sunrooms have metal awnings that were likely added around 7. Roof: a. Shape, covering: This building has a cross gable roof clad in asphalt composition shingle. The roof deck is composed of diagonally placed dimensional lumber, nailed to wood rafters joined by collar beams on every other rafter. b. Cornice, eaves: The cornices and boxed eaves are wood with cornice returns in the gables.

Cyma Reversa molding on the fascia creates the simple cornice. Copper gutters are located along the rear eave with downspouts near the edges of the rear side. A central downspout on the fagade accessed the short gutter across the two central bays. C. Description of Interior: 1. Floor plans: There are floor plans for this building. As a duplex, the building has a west and east half, with mirror opposite floor designs divided by a central brick wall. The basements have stairs and full bathrooms along the interior walls. The U.S. VETERANS HOSPITAL DUPLEX QUARTERS HABS No. GA-2424-B (Page 8) remaining space is divided into a small maid's room with closet and a larger, partially unexcavated storage room, with a wide hallway accommodating the stairway.

The first floor for each half of the duplex hosts a kitchen adjacent to the interior dividing wall, adjacent to a dining room along the rear wall. The living room consumes the largest space on the floor, along the front wall, and is open to a hallway and staircase adjacent to the interior dividing wall. A single-story sunroom is accessible by doors in the dining room and living room. The second floors of the duplex each have three bedrooms and a single full bath. Two bedrooms along the front of the building are divided from the rear bedroom and single bathroom by a short, narrow hallway. Each bedroom has a closet. The open attics have a stairwell with landing along the interior wall. There are no interior dividing walls in the attics. 2.

Stairways: There are three stairways in each unit of the duplex. As in the rest of the unit, the stairs in one unit mirror the same stairs in the adjacent unit. A simple wood stair with an open stringer is located in each basement. It is painted off-white. It has a simple balustrade composed of painted dimensional lumber on one side. The other side is attached to the basement wall. A single wood post offers support for the stair at about the halfway point. The main staircase in each unit is located between the first and second stories, and is adjacent to the interior dividing wall. It is an open stair on one side, with a wood picket balustrade and wood handrail for the bottom half of the stairs, with a square wood newel post at the foot of the stairs.

A landing three-quarters of the way up the stairs creates a right angle in the stairway, which changes direction as it heads to the second floor. The upper portion of U.S. VETERANS HOSPITAL DUPLEX QUARTERS HABS No. GA-2424-B (Page 9) the stairs is enclosed and has a simple wood handrail attached to one wall. The handrail curves upward at the landing. The wood stairs have stained wood treads, mostly covered by carpet. A door in the hallway of the second floors leads to the enclosed staircases for the attic. 3. Flooring: The basements in the duplex have poured concrete floors. The flooring throughout most of the first and second stories is tongue and groove narrow width oak, approximately 2~" wide. The hearth in front of the fireplace is brick.

The sunrooms on the first stories have carpeting on the floor; the kitchens have linoleum flooring. The bathrooms, which are on the second floor, have ceramic tile flooring. Wide wood planks form the attic flooring. 4. Wall and ceiling finish: In the basement the walls are exposed poured concrete, though they have been painted. The ceiling is left unfinished, revealing the floor joists for the first floor, as well as the plumbing, electrical and air ducts attached to the joists. Interior finishes on the first and second stories are generally smooth plaster for both walls and ceilings, and ceilings are 9' tall. Bathroom walls are partially covered with 4" ceramic wall tile, but ceilings are smooth plaster.

Interior walls in the sunrooms are covered with a synthetic paneling, and ceilings are covered with headboard. The attic is unfinished, with exposed rafters. 5. Openings: a. Doorways and doors: Interior doors are typically solid wood with two rectangular panels, the top panel is 39" in height and taller than the 19" bottom panel. Both panels are wide. The trim around interior doors is 4~" wide, and composed of a flat 4" wide wood piece surrounded on the exterior edge by a slightly projecting wide wood trim, painted the same off-white color as the doors, walls and other trim. These doors are found throughout the second floors, for bedrooms and bathrooms. On the first floors, two U.S. VETERANS HOSPITAL DUPLEX QUARTERS HABS No.

GA-2424-B (Page 10) multi-paned glass doors with wood frames access the sunrooms from the living and dining rooms. b. Windows: The interior 4~" trim for windows is simple, and consists of a 4" wide wood piece with a slightly recessed ~" wide channel along the interior edge. An additional ~" wide wood trim projects slightly around the exterior edge the 4" piece and completes the trim. Underneath the flat windowsill with rounded edge, the 4" trim repeats, with a narrow Cyma Reversa molding just under the projecting lip of the sill. This same molding is found on the double windows in the basement located in the portion originally designed as the maid's room.

Other windows in the basement do not change molding for the sill and instead continue the 4~" trim from around the sides and top of the window. 6. Decorative features and trim: The decorative features in this building are somewhat limited. In the living room the fireplace has a Federal styled mantel, featuring fluted pilasters supporting a simple cornice and mantelshelf. A central rectangular wood plaque in the center of the cornice has an oval wreath carving. The mantelshelf projects slightly at the two corners, above the pilasters. Baseboards throughout the house are 7" tall, and consist of a tall wood piece with small wood molding resting along the top, and a quarter-round molding attached to the face of the wood along the floor.

There is Cyma Reversa picture molding throughout the first floors, one foot below the nine-foot tall ceiling. In the dining rooms there are two built-in shelf units that are 80" tall and 42" wide, with shelves that curve inward at the edges. Two multi-paned glass doors across the front of the built-in shelves use a small brass chain latch attached to a knob on the handle to unlatch the doors. 7. Hardware: Notable interior hardware is located on the doors and windows in the building. Doors throughout the home feature brass doorknobs with a brass backplate. Brass door hinges with a ball at the top and bottom have often been painted over. There are U.S. VETERANS HOSPITAL DUPLEX QUARTERS HABS No. GA-2424-B (Page 11) two hinges per door.

Windows feature bronze recessed sash lifts, often two per bottom sash, and brass crescent sash locks. There is a butler's pantry adjacent to the kitchen. It features original cabinets and hardware, including small brass hinges on the doors, cup drawer pulls, and small square door lock with spring-loaded lever turned by a small brass knob, located on the cabinet door faces. 8. Mechanical Equipment: a. Heating, air conditioning, ventilation: Original heating for the building used steam, but the heating, air conditioning and ventilation (HVAC) are now controlled by forced-air central units, located outside of the building. Metal ducts for these units are located in the basement and in the attic, with air vents in the floor of the first story and in the ceiling of the second story.

It is unknown when the current system was installed. b. Lighting: The basements have an original lighting fixture in the maid's room, it is a vase-shaped pendant light of white glass. The chandeliers in the living and dining rooms have a central brass urn hung from a brass chain, supporting S-shaped brass arms. These six arms support short glass globes, while short glass prisms dangle from underneath each globe. In the hallways are lantern type light fixtures, with six slanted glass sides in a metal frame with a solid metal base and top, hanging from a metal chain. Second floor bedroom lights are large bowl-shaped white glass globes screwed onto a central bolt attached to a ceiling plate.

Bathroom lights have a ridged, round globe with a flat bottom, attached to a deep, chrome ceiling plate. On the bathroom walls above the sinks are vanity mirrors with swivel side mirrors, two vertical fluorescent lights, hidden behind chrome plates, light up the mirrors. The lights in the attics consist of a single lightbulb hanging from a metal light socket with a turn knob. U.S. VETERANS HOSPITAL DUPLEX QUARTERS HABS No. GA-2424-B (Page 12) c. Plumbing: Original plumbing systems utilized galvanized metal, cast iron and copper piping. The plumbing is visible in the basement and through an access panel in the wall at the main stair landing. Original enameled cast-iron double, deep sinks in the basements rest on iron platforms with four shaped iron legs.

Cast-iron bathtubs in the basements rest on a raised concrete platform that conforms to the outline of the bathtub base. The original bathtub in the main living space also has a Streamline design, with a rounded end and narrow steps to the exterior to give a battered appearance. The original sink is a square porcelain wall-mounted sink with chrome and plastic leg supports. 9. Original furnishings: There are original built-in cabinets in the butler's pantry of the west unit of the duplex. The east unit of the duplex has an expanded kitchen that required the removal of the pantry. The butler's pantry is a small room with doors on each side wall, one leads to the dining room and the other leads to the kitchen.

It has upper and lower cabinets on one wall, with a wood countertop on the lower cabinets. Multi-paned glass doors enclose the upper cabinets, while the base unit has four drawers above four solid wood, single-panel doors. The cabinets have been painted off-white. D. Site: 1. Historic landscape design: The original plans for the building included the sidewalks that are extant in the front lawn area. There is a concrete driveway from the road to the front of the nearby multi-car garage that is likely part of the original landscape design. This building and its surrounds are part of a group of residential and garage buildings organized around a U- shaped road and the subsequent grassy courtyard. A single hickory tree is located at each of the two ends of the grassy courtyard.

To the rear and sides of the buildings composing the quarters district, there are a number of mature shade trees, such as live oak, birch, U.S. VETERANS HOSPITAL DUPLEX QUARTERS HABS No. GA-2424-B (Page 13) mulberry, maple, water oak, sycamore and hackberry. In the front yards of several of the buildings are crepe myrtle trees, and dense boxwood and other shrubs are adjacent to the facades of the residential buildings. All of these elements combine to create a designed landscape, the mature trees help disguise the busy roads to the north and east, and the traffic utilizing the main entry road to the west. Part III. SOURCES OF INFORMATION A.

Architectural Drawings: There are original drawings for this building dating to July 15, in the Facilities Management department at the Charlie Norwood Veterans Affairs Medical Center. B. Interviews: Nick Wall, Project Manager for the Charlie Norwood Veterans Affairs Medical Center interviewed August 24, on site. Mary Sickman, Facility Management Executive for the CNVAMC, interviewed June 22, on site. C.

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2424-B. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

"Contract is Awarded for Additional Buildings at Lenwood Hospital Here." The Augusta Chronicle, 1 July 7. U.S. Veterans Bureau. "Officers Duplex Quarters Nos. 29 & 30, U.S. Veterans Hospital No. 62, Augusta, GA," April 15, Architectural drawings. Available from the Charlie Norwood Veterans Medical Center, Augusta, GA. "Work Started on New Additions at Lenwood Hospital." The Augusta Chronicle, 2 August 2. 2. Secondary and Published Adkins, Robinson E. Medical Care of Veterans, report U.S. VETERANS HOSPITAL DUPLEX QUARTERS HABS No. GA-2424-B (Page 14) prepared by the Veterans Administration Department of Medicine and Surgery. Washington, Government Printing Office, Available from the Department of Veterans Affairs. D.

Likely Sources Not Yet Investigated: The current staff for facilities management at the CNVAMC has indicated that a former staff member served as an informal "historian" for the facility but she has since left and her accumulated materials moved to an unknown location at the CNVAMC. Current staff has been unable to locate these materials. E. Supplemental Materials: There are measured drawings from created for a renovation project that apparently did not take place. The CNVAMC has these drawings. There are measured floor plan drawings from drawn by s. Filipovic of Virgo Gambill Architects in Augusta, Georgia. Part IV.

PROJECT INFORMATION This project was completed following the execution of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Georgia State Historic Preservation Officer and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation regarding construction of a new Fisher House at the Charlie Norwood Veterans Affairs Medical Center (CNVAMC)-Uptown Division in Augusta, Georgia. The construction of the Fisher House required the removal of the historic quarters on the grounds of the CNVAMC. The historic quarters were among the few buildings that remained from the hospital's earliest years, and were located across from the original buildings used for the hospital, Building Nos. 18, 19 and 20. These buildings were eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

Another historic building on campus is Building No. 7, a former ward and nursing home care unit, built in The MOA stipulations included documentation of the building types that comprise the quarters area as well as Building No. 7 through preparation of a Historic American Building Survey Level II report, with some modifications. Since the quarters area had only three types of buildings, only those features typical for U.S. VETERANS HOSPITAL DUPLEX QUARTERS HABS No. GA-2424-B (Page 15) each type were documented, with discussion of the modifications made to other examples of the type. Photographs are also representative of the typical type. Exterior large format photography of Building Nos. 18, 19, and 20 were also stipulated as well as contextual views of the district.

This documentation was prepared by New South Associates (NSA) under the direction of Principal Investigator Mary Beth Reed, President of NSA. Photography was completed by NSA Graphics Director David Diener, assisted by NSA Historian/Architectural Historian Staci Richey, who also prepared the historical report. Nickie Wall of the CNVAMC assisted Diener and Richey in the field with building access and provided Joe Gambill of Virgo Gambill Architects with copies of original floor plans and elevations, which were photographed by Diener. s. Filipovic of Virgo Gambill Architects prepared measured drawings, and Tom Quinn of New South Associates utilized these drawings to create a photo key.