Remembering the Soldiers’ Home Dairy
By 1950, the once proud dairy on the U.S. Soldiers’ Home grounds was quickly becoming a memory. A $13,500,000 building project had been approved that would redevelop the dairy property into the Washington Hospital Center. The excavation and construction would lead to the closing of the Randolph Gate in 1953 and the Park Road Gate in 1955. Nearly 60 years later, few recall the dairy, or that it was consistently viewed as a model facility in its early years.
A visit by the District’s five health department veterinarians on August 1, 1907, resulted in one commenting that “the dairy farm at the home … [was] a model in every respect. The herd [was] one of the finest in the country and the most modern sanitary precautions [were] observed.” The dairy barns were kept as clean as possible and every cow was tested for tuberculosis before it was purchased. Furthermore, new additions to the herd were quarantined for an additional three months and then tested again.

Secretary of Agriculture Wallace and inspector general of the army, Gen. Helmick, inspect the dairy at the United States Soldiers' home. This dairy is declared to be the finest in the entire world (from Washington Post, September 14, 1922)
Tags: history and culture, Old Soldiers' Home, Park View
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February 23, 2010 at 11:42 pm
awesome post! fantastic to learn about this.
February 24, 2010 at 9:12 am
Thanks. Clearly there is more digging to do, but I like what I’ve found so far.
February 10, 2011 at 7:10 am
[…] I’ve posted about before, a large portion of the area where the Washington Hospital Center currently sits was once the dairy […]
June 16, 2011 at 8:03 am
[…] would provide an opportunity to present information on W.W. Corcoran, Harewood Hospital, and the Soldiers’ Home Dairy […]
March 7, 2012 at 7:02 am
[…] to the Old Soldiers Home directly north, and they gave it to the Washington Hospital Center (former location of Soldiers’ Dairy Farm), which turned it over to the District Department of Transportation for public use. Sign: "A […]