HAMPTON, Va. (Tribune News Service) — More than 150 years ago, on the same land where the Hampton VA Medical Center is located, sat a women’s college.

The students fled during the Civil War and Confederate forces seized the site, making it a lookout. The school had a dome facing a Union Army stronghold — the Fortress Monroe. Later, after the Union regained control, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler, Fort Monroe’s commander, purchased it.

His purchase mostly coincided with Congress passing an act in 1865 to establish the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers — a few were built in the north. Five years later, Butler sold the land to the government for $50,000, recommending that an infirmary in the south was needed for Black Civil War Union veterans.

That place, informally known as the Old Soldiers’ Home, took its first patients Dec. 14, 1870.

“They established this for the Black Union soldiers. That kind of blew me away,” says Joe Cade, a VA medical center employee. “I never heard anybody talk about it. I never read anything about that.”

Cade’s former co-worker, Shelby Liston, knew about it.

In her eyes, the Hampton center serving thousands of veterans was a living museum with a unique origin story and a layered history. Over the years, Liston, now 79, has collected newspaper clippings, vintage photos — she is even in some — maps and memorabilia and compiled a retrospective, carefully curated on poster boards. As the medical center commemorates its sesquicentennial anniversary Monday, officials plan to have the boards on display in the main lobby. The lobby is not open to the public, but with help from Cade, Liston will be available if staff has questions about the history.

“I just loved the history. It’s important. I say it specifically in these times with the problems of race,” Liston said. “This house was built for Black Union soldiers. It was built here because there are a lot of descendants here. There are a lot of Blacks that fought in the war. They needed a place to go and heal and be taken care of. I think that’s very important for people to know.”

Cade, 79, who has worked at the VA for nearly four decades, says it’s a history to share — especially with new employees who rarely get to see the grounds.

“It’s amazing. She has kind of encouraged me. It tells what our heritage is. I make it a point to tell our newcomers on our tour. That brings pride for our work,” he said. “If people don’t know that how can you be proud of it and take care of it?”

In previous years, the VA has hosted yearlong celebrations for its anniversary. With the pandemic restricting visitors, Cade hopes they can revisit the displays and have the public see it.

“She probably has 30 to 50 boards. I call her a historical hoarder,” Cade said.

A layered history

Liston worked some three decades at the medical center as a ward secretary, working with patients and eventually moving up to be the assistant finance chief.

In her spare time, she was an unofficial historian. Liston harvested information about the hospital from anywhere she could find it. Its story is lengthy, with multiple layers and incredible moments — such as when yellow fever hit in 1899 and the entire facility had to be quarantined.

“They were housing these men outdoors, in an airy climate thinking they would help them, when the mosquitoes were causing the fever. They were passing it from one to another,” Liston said.

Or when the bridge at what was called “Phoebus Entrance” was taken down to make way for the interstate. Liston’s memory is a little fuzzy here, but she thinks that took place sometime during the late 1950s. The bridge was located where present-day Mallory Street meets the Hampton VA entrance.

Long before any cornerstone was laid, in 1607, English settlers encountered the “Kicotan” Indians, later spelled Kecoughtan, according to some historical records she gathered.

More than two centuries later, a Baptist minister had a school built on the then-34-acre site, calling it the Chesapeake Female Seminary, for wealthy families, established in 1854.

“It was a Baptist College when first the Confederate soldiers came in and took over the dome,” she said.

After the war ended, Butler took charge of the property during the fall of 1870, but the anniversary is celebrated Dec. 14 because that is the first day the hospital began admitting patients, Cade said.

In 1865, shortly before the Civil War ended, President Abraham Lincoln authorized creating a national soldiers’ and sailors’ asylum to provide medical and convalescent care for discharged members of the Union Army and Navy, according to the Dept. of Veteran Affairs’ website.

It was the first of its kind asylum to offer civilian medical care to veterans of temporary volunteer forces. The National Home housed some tens of thousands of vets and offered medical care and long-term housing.

They were called “soldiers’ homes” or “military homes,” according to the VA website. In the beginning, only Civil War soldiers and sailors who served honorably with the Union Army —including U.S. Colored Troops— could be admitted.

In Hampton, when the Southern Branch first opened, there were at least two buildings, the hospital and a dormitory, which included the original Chesapeake Female Seminary building, according to Daily Press archives.

As the years passed, more acreage and buildings were added. It became its own community that had medical buildings, a mess hall, a theater, a bakery, a library, a band stand, the treasurer’s office and chapels, to name a few.

In 1930, when the federal government consolidated the Veterans Bureau with the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers and Pension Bureau, it became the Veterans Administration. The facility at one time was called the Kecoughtan Veterans Administration until 1965. Today the federal division is called the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The facility even had its own newspaper for a while. “The Home Bulletin” was published by the veterans from 1884 until 1891. It was printed at the college known then as Hampton Institute.

“I find it interesting just to read some of the things that are put in here. One article was about a runaway horse ... with a carriage that dumped the passenger out,” Liston said. “Just local news, but then they would also tell the veterans (about) benefits. And you could subscribe to it. That was very cheap, maybe 3 cents.”

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