U.S. Veterans Hospital, Jefferson Barracks, Virginia Medical Center, Jefferson Barracks Division 1 Jefferson Barracks Drive, Saint Louis, Independent City, MO

Significance: It is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A for health and medicine. The original portion of the complex was constructed by the newly established U.S. Veterans Bureau in 1922-1923, to provide healthcare for veterans of the armed forces of the Untied States living in St. Louis County and the surrounding region. The facility was a general medicine hospital through the end of the 1940s and was converted to a neuropsychiatric hospital in the early 1950s. The conversion helped accommodate the large number of WWII veterans who needed treatment; the conversion was also part of the post-WWII reform movement for mental-health hospitals. The design and layout of the 1950s-era psychiatric treatment facilities also reflects the influence of Dr. Paul Haun, a Veterans Administration psychiatrist who was influential in the design of mental-health facilities in the post-WWII era.
Survey number: HABS MO-1943
Building/structure dates: after. 1921- before. 1924 Initial Construction