National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Northwestern Branch, 5000 West National Avenue, Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, WI

See also HABS WI-303 (A-E) and HABS WI-360 (A-U) for additional documentation.
Significance: The National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS) was established in 1865 as the first federal-level institution dedicated to the care of veteran soldiers. The Northwestern Branch in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was one of three original NHDVS branches. By the time the NHDVS was absorbed into the newly formed Veterans Administration in 1930, there were eleven branches across the country.

The buildings and grounds of each branch represent the Board of Managers' policies and practices regarding veterans' care. The campuses featured significant architecture and landscape designs intended to instill pride in veteran residents as well as the cities that hosted each facility. The grounds for the Northwestern Branch were planned in 1867 by Thomas Budd Van Horne. Avenues were laid out with respect to the undulating topography of the campus, consistent with the ideology of the Picturesque landscape movement. Ornamental pavilions, lush landscaping, and attractive water features were linked by winding roadways.

The campus of the Northwestern Branch is an important example of the Picturesque landscape movement, which was popular throughout the late nineteenth century. Many landscapes of this era were conceived along the lines of sequential vistas (the creation of a series of "pictures" from which the stylistic term "picturesque" was, in part, derived). This sequence of vistas is present at the Northwestern Branch landscape as one moves through the grounds from south to north.
Survey number: HALS WI-13
Building/structure dates: ca. 1865- ca. 1867 Initial Construction
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 05000530