Tuscan Villa Hospital (Site)

These coordinates mark the exact location where the building once stood. No visible remains exist. Townhouses now occupy the site.


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Here follows an excerpt from the City of Alexandria website:

Tuscan Villa, a large private residence, was confiscated for use as a branch of the Wolfe Street Hospital.

History of Tuscan Villa Hospital
500-502 Wolfe Street

This large private residence was confiscated for use as a branch of the Wolfe Street Hospital, which was the 1st Division General Hospital.

The Tuscan Villa had been built in the Italianate style that became popular in the U.S. in the earlier part of the 1800s. Although the 1911 Photographic History of the Civil War labels this building as the Friends’ Meeting House, the photograph appears to show the Tuscan Villa, with the Wolfe Street General Hospital (still standing) to its right. The Friends Meeting House Hospital, a block away at 600 Wolfe St. was also associated with Wolfe Street Hospital.


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

Built around 1850, this large Italianate home occupied the southwest corner of Wolfe and South Pitt streets. The two and a half story manor at 508 Wolfe featured two porches and a four-story turret and a carriage house with a cupola.

During the Civil War, it was used as a Union hospital. From January 1862 to February 1865, this house and another large one to the west were known as the Wolfe Street Hospital. It was during this time that this photograph was taken by Mathew Brady’s studio.

In the 1870s, former Louisiana planter Theodore J. Packwood and his wife lived there, but it soon become the home of John A. Marshall, a successful businessman and bank officer. Marshall lived there until his death in 1913, and in the 1920s, the John Marshall House -- as it was known -- passed through a series of owners and occupants before a Jewish congregation acquired it in 1927.

The site became the synagogue for the Agudas Achim Congregation and was used for Jewish community functions and meetings, as well as for religious services. In 1946, Agudas Achim sold the home to a local post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and in the 1950s, it became a Moose Lodge. By the early 1960s, it was vacant and acquired for development.

The John Marshall House was demolished in 1961 to make way for the Federal Hill homes, built by Royce Ward and John Philipp along South Pitt Street that year.