Grosvenor Branch Hospital (Site)

These coordinates mark the exact location where the hospital once stood. Today, the building is an historic house museum, open to the public


<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>
<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>

Here follows an excerpt from the City of Alexandria website:

Grosvenor Hospital and Grosvenor Branch Hospital
Grosvenor Hospital, and its branch at what is now known as the Lee-Fendall House, served the 3rd Division of General Hospitals. The first blood transfusion in North America was performed at the Grosvenor Branch.

History of Grosvenor Hospital and Grosvenor Branch Hospital
Grosvenor Hospital, 414 N. Washington Street
Grosvenor Branch Hospital, 614 Oronoco Street

The Quartermaster map shows that wooden barracks, for use as hospital wards, were built directly west of the residence at 414 N. Washington Street, along with laundry, deadhouse, one other structure, and a sink (ie., privy). The hospital opened on August 17, 1862. It was set up for the Third Division after Sept. 20, 1862, with 160 beds.

The Lee-Fendall House, across Washington Street, was called the Grosvenor Branch Hospital. The Branch Hospital property was originally owned by Revolutionary War hero Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee, the father of Robert E. Lee. He sold the lot to his cousin Philip Richard Fendall, who built this wood frame house in 1785. From 1785 until 1903, the house served as the home to thirty-seven members of the Lee family.

The Lee period of residency was interrupted during the Civil War when, in 1863, the Union Army seized the property for use as a branch of the Grosvenor Hospital across Washington St. The Branch Hospital consisted of the existing three story home, a wood frame building with an “ell” extended along Oronoco Street. The Army also constructed a dead house. The hospital served the 3rd Division of General Hospitals in Alexandria, which according to a December 1864 census had a total capacity of 1,359. Dr. Edwin Bentley, in charge of the U.S. Army General Hospital in Alexandria, performed the first blood transfusion in North America at the Grosvenor Branch. (W. J. Kuhns, "Historic Milestones Blood Transfusions in the Civil War," Transfusion, Volume 5, 1965, pp. 92-94.)

After the war the house was owned by Alexandria’s locally prominent Downham family (1903-1937), and one of the nation’s most controversial and significant 20th century labor leaders, John L. Lewis (1937-1969). The Lee-Fendall House is now an historic house museum, open to the public.

The Grosvenor Hospital was closed on April 24, 1865.

Quartermaster Map
The Quartermaster map shows the Grosvenor Hospital along with Grosvenor Branch and Queen Street Hospital. Details include an elevation of the Wards.

Location and the Site Today
An office building now sits on the site of the Grosvenor Hospital barracks at 414 N. Washington Street. The Grosvenor Branch Hospital was located across the street at 614 Oronoco Street, where the Lee-Fendall House Museum and Garden now highlights 1850s interior design, activities, and collections including many items from the Lee family.


<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>
<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>

Here follows an excerpt from the City of Alexandria website:

First Person Accounts
The occupation of Alexandria by Union troops forever changed the social, cultural and economic fabric of the old seaport town. For four years, Alexandria was an occupied city, enduring the longest military occupation by Union troops of any town during the conflict. We are fortunate to have a number of first-person accounts of this trying period of Alexandria’s history.

George Washington Bellows, Michigan Soldier
George Washington Bellows, a member of the Third Michigan Infantry, wrote this not long after he arrived in Alexandria in February, 1864. Bellows was admitted with an "intermittent fever" (malaria) and treated with cathartics and quinine sulfate. He was transferred to Fairfax Seminary Hospital at the end of March, after two to three weeks in Grosvenor Hospital.

Men of the 3rd Michigan Infantry: The Life Stories of the 1,411 Soldiers who Served in the 3rd Michigan Infantry Between April of 1861 and June of 1864. Third Michigan Blogspot, posted by Steve Soper, August 19, 2007.
…while our Regt was at or near Alexandria, Va., through hardship and exposure I again took a violent cold which seemed to settle on my lungs and in fact over my whole body. I was sent to the Grosvenor Hospital in Alexandria.

Edwin Bentley, Surgeon
From a copy of a handwritten memo dated April 21, 1875. (Alexandria Library, Special Collections, Vertical files.)

Bentley, Edwin Surg. U.S. Vols. 3rd Div Gen. Hospital Alexandria informed that his application for the rebel house opposite Grosvenor Hospital has been referred to Brg. Gen. Slough endorsed, authority granted to take possession of the within named house for use as a general hospital


<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>
<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>

Here follows an excerpt from the "Out of the Attic" column from the Alexandria Times newspaper:

414 North Washington Street
Alexandria Times, May 28, 2009

Sometimes known known as Grosvenor House, this 2 ½-story home at 414 North Washington Street was built around 1830, most likely for Anthony Cazenove. The Greek Revival-style residence of pressed red brick had a hipped roof, Ionic portico, doorway with sidelights, and, on the south side, a conservatory. The home was visible on an 1853 print, “View of Alexandria Va.” published by J.T. Palmatary, that looks south down North Washington Street.

During the Civil War, the Union army used the private home as a hospital where more than 100 patients could be cared for. At that time, Grosvenor House Hospital was photographed from the south and a two story wing is visible to the west. Following the war, Montgomery Dent Corse, a brigadier general with the Confederacy and native Alexandrian, lived at 414 North Washington until both he and his wife died in early 1895.

Around 1906, local merchant and druggist Clarence C. Leadbeater and his wife Lillian moved into the home, and in the 1930s and early 1940s, Mrs. Leadbeater opened her home for historic house tours that benefited St. Paul’s Church and the Alexandria Hospital Auxiliary.

In 1959, when this photo was taken, the house was noted in the Historic American Buildings Survey as “undoubtedly the best preserved example of the Greek Revival in town.” A year later, Mrs. Leadbeater, by then a widow, decided to move into an apartment.

The property was sold and the house razed so an office building could be built. Before complete demolition, the home’s building materials, including early American random width flooring, English bubbled glass windows, original built-in cook stoves, marble mantels and imported English red brick were advertised for sale in a newspaper notice for “Dismantling Historic Grosvenor House.”

“Out of the Attic” is published each week in the Alexandria Times newspaper. The column began in September 2007 as “Marking Time” and explored Alexandria’s history through collection items, historical images and architectural representations. Within the first year, it evolved into “Out of the Attic” and featured historical photographs of Alexandria.

These articles appear with the permission of the Alexandria Times and were authored by Amy Bertsch, former Public Information Officer, and Lance Mallamo, Director, on behalf of the Office of Historic Alexandria.


<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>
<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>

Here follows an excerpt from the "Out of the Attic" column from the Alexandria Times newspaper:

Rebel homes, confiscated for Union wounded
Alexandria Times, March 30, 2017

After the initial occupation of Alexandria by Union troops in 1861 at the start of the Civil War, the First Battle at Bull Run two months later elevated Confederate hopes that the conflict might be short-lived.

But as the months dragged on, and casualties returning to Alexandria for treatment escalated, the need for medical facilities became crucial. At first, the city’s largest buildings were confiscated for hospital use, and quickly outfitted with crude cots to provide only the most basic comforts.

Unfortunately, the wounded kept coming, and, coupled with poor sanitation across the city, polluted water and spreading infectious diseases, soldiers were soon joined by even larger hordes of sick patients suffering from a wide variety of illnesses. The most common was dysentery, but the annual epidemics common to Alexandria were of epic proportions during the war years.

As the need for medical space grew, churches, schools and even private homes were taken over by Union authorities on a moment’s notice. Particularly vulnerable were homes vacated by supporters of the Confederacy.

Although locked up and often left in the care of family servants, these barriers crumbled in the face of directives to confiscate properties for military use. Two such properties were elegant homes near the famous Lee Corner at North Washington and Oronoco streets, which became known as the Grosvenor Hospital and its annex, the Grosvenor Branch Hospital.

The main building at 414 N. Washington St. opened on August 17, 1862, in the home built in 1830 for Anthony Cazenove, one of Alexandria’s most illustrious citizens who, due to his fluent French, was the personal representative to the Marquis de Lafayette during his 1824 visit to the city. Once in military hands, the stately gardens behind the home were immediately replaced by a two story, 20-foot-by-100-foot hospital ward, a laundry facility, privies and a so-called “dead house” for the storage of corpses awaiting burial.

The hospital included space for 160 patients, but was filled to capacity within a year. In response, authorities seized the Oronoco Street home across the street, built in 1785 by Lee family relative Philip Fendall. The dwelling’s entry hall, seen here, served as a smaller annex to Grosvenor, handling the overflow of patients and those in need of special care. It was at this location that Dr. Edwin Bentley, director of the U.S. Army General Hospital complex in Alexandria, performed the first blood transfusion in North America.

Grosvenor Hospital closed just days after the Confederates’ surrender at Appomattox, and in the years after the war, both buildings were restored to residential use. Confederate Brig. Gen. Montgomery D. Morse returned to his native Alexandria and purchased 414 N. Washington St., where he lived with his wife until 1895, continuing to call the residence Grosvenor House.

The Lee family returned to the Grosvenor Branch on Oronoco Street, remaining there until 1903, when the home was purchased by Robert Downham. That site is now operated as the Lee-Fendall House Museum and Garden.

“Out of the Attic” is published each week in the Alexandria Times newspaper. The column began in September 2007 as “Marking Time” and explored Alexandria’s history through collection items, historical images and architectural representations. Within the first year, it evolved into “Out of the Attic” and featured historical photographs of Alexandria.

These articles appear with the permission of the Alexandria Times and were authored by Amy Bertsch, former Public Information Officer, and Lance Mallamo, Director, on behalf of the Office of Historic Alexandria.