Gallinger Municipal Hospital, 1949
Courtesy Library of Congress
Closed May 2001

3

District of Columbia General Hospital
1900 Massachusetts Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20003

The city's first and only public hospital, DC General Hospital closed in May 2001 after serving the residents for nearly two hundred years. The area once occupied by the DC General Hospital, defined by Independence Avenue, 19th Street, SE, and the Anacostia River, is now called the DC General Health Campus, consisting of a number of clinics such Women's Services, Detoxification Center, and Southeast Sexually Transmitted Diseases Clinic.

The Washington Infirmary, the first public hospital established in 1806, was moved to this site in 1846. By then it was called the Washington Asylum and housed the city's indigent patients. It also served as a work house for people convicted of minor crimes. Later, a smallpox hospital, quarantine station, disinfection plant, and crematory were also located in this area. With the construction of a new building, the health-care facility became the Gallinger Municipal Hospital in 1922, and was renamed District of Columbia General Hospital in 1953. The controversial closing of the public hospital in 2001 ended the inpatient services and the city's indigent health care system was transferred mostly to the Greater Southeast Community Hospital. The DC Jail is located to the south of this historic health-care complex.

See: #3 on Area Map.

Nearest Metro Station: 'Stadium-Armory' on Blue and Orange Lines.

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