In
1669 a man named Thomas Todd acquired a 300 acre peninsula bordering
the Patapsco River, not all of this land was owned by Todd; however, it
was part of his plantation. It would remain the way for many years to
come, the land would even see battle in the war of 1812. In 1902
reinforced concrete bunkers would be installed on the peninsula and the
land would then become a military fort. In 1917, the troops at Fort
Howard were doubled and its men were put on a wartime basis due to the
concerns of an impending war. And in 1926, the Secretary of War was
authorized to dispose of the Fort Howard Military Reservation, but the
reservation was not sold and continued as an active post of the Regular
Army until August 1940 when nearly 80 buildings would be removed from
the fort’s property when I neighboring VA hospital decided to move their
location to the peninsula. The Medical Corps Buildings of the 12th
Infantry were renovated for the nurses’ home, infirmary, and attendants’
quarters. The nurses’ home was the headquarters of General Douglas
MacArthur from 1925 to 1928 which became the 377-bed hospital building.
The Peninsula VA hospital officially opened for patient care in 1943.
On June 20, 2000, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs approved the plans to
change the mission of the Peninsula VA Medical Center, a division of the
VA Maryland Health Care System. The first phase of the new mission was
moving the Peninsula VA Hospital to a new location about an hour north
across the Potomac River; This would then occur in 2002 when the
location peninsula location was closed.
After
closure the property when through multiple states; it was at first
still VA property, then became state property and part of a park. In
early 2013 they came up with a plan to demolish the current buildings,
and reopen a new facility; newer that the location on the Potomac. The
property would then once again become VA property. The demise of this
complex is still not certain, for now it still stands boarded up on a
peninsula, south of Mob Town.
