Southern Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Barracks O, 100 Emancipation Avenue, Hampton, Hampton, Virginia

Significance: Building 67 was built in 1910 as the east structure of a pair of mirror-image barracks: Barracks O (Building 67) and Barracks G (Building 66). Both structures were built during the a 1906-12 modernization of the Southern Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS) later renamed the Hampton Veterans Administration Medical Center. The Southern Branch Home, founded in 1870, was the fourth in a series of eleven branches designed to serve the disabled veteran of the Civil War. It was made possible by Congressional legislation passed in 1865, which established regional-based soldiers' homes. The Southern Branch Home represents the first soldiers' home to be built specifically to care for this nation's African-American veterans. Building 67 (and its twin) were designed by noted Portland, Maine architect John Calvin Stevens and were two of eight barracks he designed for the campus modernization. The entire set of barracks were built in three stages: Buildings 69, 70, and 71 in 1908, Buildings 66 and 67 in 1910, and Buildings 43, 50, and 52 in 1912. The buildings within each of the sets are identical, while comparisons between the sets show slight variations in architectural execution (rather than in floor plan). Building 67 represents the expansion and orderly growth of the Southern Branch due to new Home admission policies. The barracks were the first grouping of non-wood barracks at the Home. The use of brick was intended to prevent the spread of fire. The barracks were well-lighted from natural illumination through long windows, and had porches and cross breezes for good ventilation. On the interior, glazed wall tires were used to promote easy cleaning. The barracks were military in feel, but were designed in the regional vernacular, the Colonial Revival.
Survey number: HABS VA-1210-C