Roanoke 8th Air Force Fellowship

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VETERANS HOSPITAL COMES TO THE ROANOKE VALLEY

 

October 2024 marks an important milestone for the Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center as it travels through its historic path providing health care to Veterans of southwest Virginia and surrounding areas. Ninety years ago, on October 19, 1934, the United States Veterans Administration Hospital, as it was then called, was dedicated in a very elaborate ceremony with President Franklin D. Roosevelt giving the dedicatory address to an estimated crowd of 40,000 which was broadcast nationally on radio. In attendance were reporters from the Baltimore Sun, Washington Post, and New York Times. The Medical Center, the first to be constructed under President Roosevelt’s administration, was considered primarily a neuropsychiatric facility and built on a 445-acre tract. Upon completion, it was expected to have 450 to 500 employees with a $600,000 annual payroll and 472 operating beds. It was also a working farm, with cattle, hogs, and feed being raised with patients involved in these activities as part of their therapy.

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The clinical section housed the “most modern development of hospital design”, including a pharmacy, medical library, laboratory, dental office, and operating and x-ray suites. There was also an eye, ear, nose, and throat and cardiograph and metabolism section.  There was a large dining hall for patients and staff, including a bakery and a recreation building with an auditorium, complete with stage to accommodate “theatrical entertainments, and motion and talking pictures”.

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HOW IT GOT TO BE HERE

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The location of the Medical Center was approved in 1933 by President Herbert Hoover after the Federal Board of Hospitalization recommended a “general” type facility be located in southwest Virginia. Careful consideration was given with reference to population and accessibility. The actual selection of Roanoke, now annexed into Salem, was credited largely to the efforts of the local Chamber of Commerce, which had been lobbying for a facility to be established in the Roanoke area. These efforts were headed up by Roanoke City Council member, Dr. Frank C. Cooper, with help and support from Representative Clifton A. Woodrum, Congressman, Sixth District of Virginia. According to the Roanoke Times, their bid was “laid impressively before the national administration”.

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Engineers from the Veterans Administration visited all the proposed sites but chose Roanoke due to its main line railroads, bus lines, paved highways, and the availability of water, gas, electric, and sewer services. Original construction cost was 1,750,000 and on January 16, 1934, ground was broken with a scheduled completion date of February 14, 1935. Just before Christmas, the Veterans Administration announced that unemployed persons in the valley would receive job preference in the construction.

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THE CEREMONY

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President Roosevelt began his speech at 4:45pm where the flagpole is now in front of building 2, overlooking the playing field used for soccer, football, softball, and other sports. As the sun was starting to go down over the mountains, he gave “glowing tribute to the beauty of the setting” and acknowledged his acclaim upon arrival at the train station in Roanoke and on his drive through Salem enroute to the hospital.

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The ceremony took place nine months after the original ground breaking and about four months prior to scheduled completion. In addition to President Roosevelt, many, if not all local and state politicians were present, along with some West Virginia representatives. Notably in attendance was Brigadier General Frank T. Hines, distinguished Veteran of World War One. General Hines was appointed Director of the Veteran's Bureau in 1923 by President Harding and lobbied to consolidate various veterans’ relief agencies. He eventually succeeded and they were combined under the title “Veterans Administration" in July 1930.

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National Guard units from Blacksburg, Covington, Lynchburg, Martinsville, and Bedford were represented, including the 116th Infantry, which later distinguished itself on Omaha Beach in France at the D-Day landings of June 6th, 1944. Boy Scouts were even utilized to help with communications and traffic control along with students from Virginia Tech, Virginia Military Institute, and Roanoke College. The local Marine Corps Reserve provided an honor guard. The Roanoke Times reported that the event “exceeds in magnitude anything in history “. Schools, businesses, and government offices closed at 1:00pm and school children were brought out by the roadsides in order to see the President. They were given small flags to wave as he passed by. My Mom was one of those children and later became an employee helping to take care of many Veterans.

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“I COMMEND THEM TO YOUR CARE"

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The hot topic of the day concerning Veterans was the “adjusted compensation certificates” for veterans of “The World War”; otherwise known as the “bonus”, and the President was faced with the economic problems of leading the nation in its recovery from the Great Depression. The news correspondent's reactions were varying as to the most important points of the President’s speech but most agreed that his remarks, including putting “first things first” indicated any veterans bonus payments would have to be made after other, more pressing, relief needs have been given attention. These needs were described by reporters as providing for the “disabled, the sick, the destitute", and the "starving and underprivileged and forgotten people living in the back eddies of life”.

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The President reminded everyone that “hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children”, scattered throughout the nation, “have no splendid hospitals for their care”, and can but suffer the ills of their lives according to their own individual circumstances.  He stated that he was “confident” that the veterans of American wars, in their patriotism, would approve and that it had been “amply demonstrated that the veterans of the World War, today in the prime of life, are better off from the point of view of employment and of annual income than the average of any other great group of our citizens.”

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Our local Salem VA Medical Center and others like it throughout the country, along with the entire Agency comprised of three branches, Veterans Health Administration, Veterans Benefits Administration, and the National Cemetery Administration, still, as in 1934, competes with other noble causes for financing. In spite of this, and it’s ever increasing demand for services, the Agency and Medical Centers work with the resources given by the President and Congress to serve, as President Roosevelt said, “as a symbolic and bold denial of any careless statement that the United States does not take care of those who have served it in war-and as a symbolic affirmance of our belief in the underlying patriotic willingness of our veterans to put "first things first.”

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Many years have passed since that October day and the Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center continues to travel its historic path by being an important part of the local community and providing our Veterans with the excellent health care they deserve. It is significant in that it is the only VA Medical Center to be dedicated in person by a sitting President.

 

President Franklin D. Roosevelt knew 90 years ago how important the role of the Salem VA Medical Center would be when, as he spoke to the giant crowd at the dedication: “Most of you in this great audience are from this neighborhood and in the years to come the men who will occupy this hospital will be your friends and your neighbors. I commend them to your care".