National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Mountain Branch, Chapel, Lamont & Veterans Way, Johnson City, Washington County, TN

Significance: The Chapel was constructed in 1904-05 as part of the original Beaux-Arts campus ensemble for the Mountain Branch the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS). The NHDVS was a federal institution authorized by Congress in 1865 and charged with caring for Civil War veterans disabled by their military service. It held a competition for the design of its ninth branch, to be located in Washington County, Tennessee at the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. The location was chosen at the urging of local Congressman Walter P. Brownlow for its healthful climate and proximity to underserved veterans in Tennessee and other southern states. Although founded for Civil War veterans of the Union Army, the NHDVS membership had expanded over the decades to include veterans of the Mexican, Indian, and Spanish American Wars. By 1930 the system had eleven branches and became part of the new Veterans Administration.
The winning design for the Mountain Branch by New York architect Joseph H. Freedlander incorporated the latest ideas of comprehensive design and Neoclassicism as taught by the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Freedlander created a hierarchy of communal buildings, barracks, and service functions arranged along a central avenue with views south to the nearby mountains. Smaller scale social support buildings such as the chapel, theater, and library were located on a secondary axis.
The Mission Revival Chapel for the Mountain Branch is finely detailed and a complementary part of the campus design. Its L-shaped plan includes separate but nearly identical sanctuaries, with the Catholic wing oriented north/south and the Protestant wing oriented east/west. The two wings are connected by small vestibules and a large corner tower. Each Soldiers' Home branch had some sort of chapel to accommodate religious services for various Christian denominations. The Mountain Branch Chapel has a singular appearance among all the branch structures, while offering a functional type important to the complete residential life of a NHDVS branch.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N1789
Survey number: HABS TN-254-F
Building/structure dates: 1905 Initial Construction