National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers - Battle Mountain Sanitarium, Plunge Bath, 500 North Fifth Street, Hot Springs, Fall River County, SD

The name of the overall site and some individual buildings were edited after the initial photographic survey was transmitted. Previously the site was incompletely called Battle Mountain Sanitarium, and this building was incorrectly called the Battle Mountain Sanitarium, Catholic Chapel, which was changed to Protestant Chapel. The name has been changed to National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers - Battle Mountain Sanitarium, Plunge Bath. Hot Springs Veterans Administration Medical Center, Protestant Chapel has been added as a secondary name. The current name of Black Hills VA Health Care System - Hot Springs Campus was added to the building number in the secondary name.
See HABS No. SD-24-F for measured drawings. See overview historical context HABS No. SD-24 for additional information on the Battle Mountain Sanitarium and the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.
Significance: Built between 1903 and 1907 as the original Plunge Bath for the Battle Mountain
Sanitarium, Building No. 9 was later converted into a Lodge Hall and then a Protestant Chapel with maintenance shops below. The pavilion-plan hospital at Battle Mountain Sanitarium was designed by Omaha architect Thomas Rogers Kimball. The Mission Revival complex included an Administration Building, six wards, and a Mess Hall/Service Building arranged around a circular connecting corridor. Two small service wings were attached to sides of the Mess Hall building via connecting corridors. The original Plunge Bath was housed in the east wing. Battle Mountain Sanitarium was unique within the National Home system in its primary purpose as a medical facility. Veterans would travel for short term treatment of acute conditions before returning to other primarily residential National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers branches. They could remain at Battle Mountain only as long as their conditions showed improvement. Battle Mountain specialized in treatment of musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, and respiratory conditions, as well as skin diseases which would benefit from hydrotherapy in the mineral spring plunge pool.
Survey number: HABS SD-24-O
Building/structure dates: 1903-1907 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: after. 1955- before. 1960 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1958 Subsequent Work
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 11000561