Black Hills Rehabilitation Hospital history

The first National Home, now VA’s oldest hospital, opened near Augusta, Maine, on November 1, 1866.

The City of Sturgis was founded in 1876.

Meade was originally established in 1878 at as military post to protect miners and settlers traveling in the Black Hills area.

Eastern Branch National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Togus, Maine, 1891.

The Star-Spangled Banner became part of the evening military retreat ceremony at Fort Meade in 1892, long before it became our National Anthem.

In 1921, the Bureau of War Risk Insurance, Public Health Service Veterans’ hospitals, and Rehabilitation Division of the Federal Board of Vocational Education were consolidated to form one agency.

In 1928, admission to Veterans Bureau hospitals and National Homes was fully extended to women, National Guard, and militia Veterans.

By 1929, the National Homes had grown to 11 institutions that spanned the country.

The second consolidation of federal Veterans programs took place on July 21, 1930 when President Herbert Hoover consolidated the Veterans Bureau with the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers and Pension Bureau and re-designated it as the Veterans Administration.

In 1938, J.C. “Pappy” Hoel hosted a dirt track race with nine riders that set a course in Sturgis history.

Sturgis and the Black Hills thunder with the sounds of motorcycle enthusiasts, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, from all over the world. It continued to serve as a military post until 1944 when it became part of the Veterans Administration Hospital network.

In 1946, the Department of Medicine and Surgery was established within VA. VA was able to recruit and retain top medical personnel by modifying the Civil Service system.

When Bradley left in 1947, there were 125 VA hospitals.

By 1948, 60 medical schools were affiliated with VA hospitals.

In 1977, two VA doctors, Doctor Rosalyn Yalow (Bronx VAMC) and Doctor Andrew Schally (New Orleans VAMC) received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work in developing radioimmunoassay of peptide hormones.