A committee from the Surgeon General’s Office of the Army was ordered to Chicago for the purpose of making a preliminary survey and to recommend sites for hospital use. Apparently two sites were under consideration -- the Field Museum and Speedway Race Track reservation during World War I to erect a convalescent hospital in the so-called "Big Ten Area".

The hospital was designed for wounded and disabled troops returning from overseas and those who had incurred disabilities in the various camps of the States. The patients were to be discharged when maximum benefits of hospitalization had been reached and then sent to their homes in the nearby states. The committee from the Surgeon General’s Office decided on the Speedway site. Arrangements were made with Edward Hines, Sr., to erect a convalescent hospital. Contracts were let to the Shank Construction Company and the beginning of construction was set for 1918.

It is claimed that the foundation of the Speedway race track grandstand was used, supposedly to save time, but this is not so.  By the time the walls were constructed the war had ended and the original plans were changed.  It was decided to hospitalize convalescent veterans near their homes to contract hospitals. The responsibility of hospitalization became a problem of the Public Health Service. Accordingly the contract with Edwards Hines was canceled and all building activity at this site was discontinued. The race track was gone and the bare walls which were standing were causing a financial loss to Mr. Hines.  However, after the Public Health Service assumed the responsibility of hospitalizing the disabled, a contract to purchase was entered into between Mr. Edward H. Thomas, business manager for Mr. Hines and the Public Health Service.  That agency then took over the title to the uncompleted hospital and construction was resumed.

The first patients were admitted to the new hospital on August 8, 1921. The Public Health Service has designated the hospital as United States Public Health Hospital, Number 76.

On August 8, 1921, Congress created the Veterans Bureau by consolidating the United States Public Health Service Hospitals, Bureau of War Risk Insurance and the federal board for Vocational Education. Thus, the United States Public Health Hospital, Number 76, passed from the control of the United States Public Health Service to the Veterans Bureau.

Here are excerpts taken from the presidential order designating the hospital as Edward Hines, Jr., Memorial Hospital:

This designation was again changed on march 15, 1920, after the consolidation of the Chicago Regional Office and the Edward Hines, Jr. Hospital and identified as the Veterans Administration Facility, Edward Hines, Jr. Center. On June 7, 1924, all medical and dental officers who held commissions in the reserve corps of the Unites States Public Health Service were transferred to the United States Civil Service and later were required to attain by examination, a Civil Service status. In the beginning, the numerical designation of seventy-six was seldom referred to and the title "Speedway Hospital" became the easy and common name. Even after the executive order of the President designating the hospital as the Edward Hines, Jr. Hospital, newspapers and the public in general continued to refer to the "Speedway Hospital" for many years until eventually the incorrect name was lost to time. Colonel Hugh Scott, manager, did much to induce the newspapers and public to discontinue using the improper name.

Sources were used in the compilation of this entry include but are not limited to:

• Records and materials supplied from the archives of Broadview Historical Society--courtesy of Michael Kaminski
• A history of this the Edwards Hines Hospital and its site was been compiled by a patient of the hospital, Mr. Ralph Cragg. Mr. Cragg gathered the information from the Chicago Historical Society, the Chicago Public Library, the Municipal Library of Chicago and the Hospital Library as well as other sources. We commend Mr. Cragg and his resourcefulness and initiative which made this interesting history available.

Last Modified:  12/10/2002