"Hospital Fund"
— Fort Nelson Park —
The British had a custom of taxing its sailors for their health care. In 1798 Congress established the "Hospital Fund" based on the British system. 20 cents per month was deducted from the pay of each officer, sailor and marine to provide for his health care. At that time, shore-based medical treatment took place at the Gosport Shipyard. Patients were treated, not in hospitals, but in sail lofts, storerooms, or other work spaces. They had to contend with noise and the odors of the shipyard and the surgeon couldn't provide proper care. Enough money had been collected by 1821 to build naval hospitals in key ports. In 1830, the Navy's first hospital opened in Portsmouth.| HM Number | HM1KTZ |
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| Tags | |
| Placed By | Path of History, Portsmouth, Va |
| Marker Condition | No reports yet |
| Date Added | Sunday, May 31st, 2015 at 10:02pm PDT -07:00 |
| UTM (WGS84 Datum) | 18S E 383654 N 4078037 |
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| Decimal Degrees | 36.84108333, -76.30486667 |
| Degrees and Decimal Minutes | N 36° 50.465', W 76° 18.292' |
| Degrees, Minutes and Seconds | 36° 50' 27.9" N, 76° 18' 17.52" W |
| Driving Directions | Google Maps |
| Area Code(s) | 757 |
| Which side of the road? | Marker is on the right when traveling North |
| Closest Postal Address | At or near 700 Crawford Pkwy, Portsmouth VA 23704, US |
| Alternative Maps | Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap |
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