{"nrhp_refnum":"03001412","name":"Central Branch, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers","other_names":["VA Medical Center and National Cemetery"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"4100 W. Third St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Dayton","county":"Montgomery County","state":"OH","lat":39.74317078850004,"lon":-84.26068882839986,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-01-15","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"2012-10-16","areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Health/Medicine","Politics/Government","Social History","Landscape Architecture","Community Planning and Development"],"significance_levels":["national","state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 261.2-acre historic district on the Dayton VA Medical Center and National Cemetery campus at 4100 West Third Street, Dayton, Ohio, about three miles west of downtown. It was established in 1867 as the Central Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.","why_significant":"The nomination presents it as one of the original branches of the National Home, which grew from a temporary asylum for disabled Civil War veterans into a large permanent institution for veterans' medical care and housing. It is significant for its role in health care, government policy and social history, and for its campus planning, landscape and architecture. The original parade-ground layout, the cemetery and a range of period buildings survive.","narrative":"Dayton's veterans' campus began in 1867 as the Central Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. It sits on a ridge overlooking the Miami valley, about three miles west of downtown. The listed district covers 261.2 acres, including the medical center grounds and the 98.2-acre National Cemetery. The original plan centered on a parade ground with a bandstand, ringed by barracks, headquarters, a natural grotto and officers' quarters. That layout survives, along with the 1868 Gothic Revival gate lodge, an ornate eastern entrance and a road system set up in the 1880s to handle heavy visitor traffic. Buildings range from frame staff quarters in Tudor, Queen Anne and Italianate styles to three-story Colonial Revival patient care buildings of the 1930s and 1940s. The cemetery holds roughly 35,700 full-casket burials around a tall Soldiers Monument. The district is recognized for its role in veterans' care, medicine, government policy, landscape design and architecture between 1867 and 1952. It still serves veterans today.","period_of_significance":"1867-1952","architect_builder":"C.B. Davis; Lemuel B. Porter","architectural_style":"Late Victorian (Gothic, Italianate), Second Empire, Colonial Revival, Classical Revival, Queen Anne, California Bungalow, Georgian Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The entire site remains in use as a veteran care facility, and the National Cemetery is active and still expanding. The district retains a good degree of integrity.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:10.418462-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/03001412.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/03001412/e2fe5c21ef-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/03001412/e2fe5c21ef-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Veterans Health","credit_html":"Veterans Health, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dayton_VA_Medical_Center.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71990526","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayton_Veterans_Affairs_Medical_Center","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q22022313"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/montgomery-county/central-branch-national-home-for-disabled-volunteer-soldiers-03001412/"}