St. Elizabeths Hospital, Allison Group, 2700 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, Southeast, Washington, District of Columbia, DC

For documentation of the individual buildings in the Allison Group, see also: Allison A (HABS DC-349-AN), Allison B (HABS DC-349-AO), Allison C (HABS DC-349-AM), and Allison D (HABS DC-349-AL).
Significance: The Allison group is significant for its association with the care of Civil War and other military veterans and the treatment of mental illness at the St. Elizabeths Campus. The Allison group consists of four pavilions/cottages constructed around a small courtyard, connected by deep porches, and reflect the divergence from the original Kirkbride plan for housing patients within a single building segregated by ailment. The Allison group was the last of five clusters built between 1878 and 1899 to house an aging population of white male Civil War veterans.

The Allison group (Buildings 23, 24, 25, and 26) was the last cottage complex constructed under William Godding, who became superintendent of St. Elizabeths in 1877. At the beginning of his tenure, Godding adopted a different approach toward developing new buildings on campus than had previously been followed. Starting in 1878, the ward buildings were constructed as detached "cottages" and clustered into small groups. Each building group was designed and designated for a specific patient type. The cottage type of architecture consisted of an open patient dormitory with attached attendants' quarters, and allowed for the orderly separation of patients in the healthy and serene family atmosphere of the ward units, without the constraints or limitations of a large single building.
Survey number: HABS DC-349-BW
Building/structure dates: 1899 Initial Construction
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 79003101