{"nrhp_refnum":"94000672","name":"Veterans Administration Hospital Historic District","other_names":["Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC)--Waco"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"4800 Memorial Dr.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Waco","county":"McLennan County","state":"TX","lat":31.51131657150006,"lon":-97.16555551917045,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1994-07-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Politics/Government","Health/Medicine"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A federal veterans' hospital campus at 4800 Memorial Drive in Waco, McLennan County, Texas, begun in the early 1930s and expanded in 1944-1945. It is a cohesive group of Mediterranean Revival buildings built by the U.S. Government.","why_significant":"The district is significant for its architecture, its role in health care and medicine, and its link to federal government policy toward veterans. Its Mediterranean Revival buildings, arranged on a Beaux Arts plan, are described as the purest example of that style among the Veterans hospitals of the period. The campus layout reflects contemporary ideas about hospital design and healthful living for long-term patients.","narrative":"Built by the federal government as a hospital for veterans needing long-term care after World War I, this campus in Waco opened on May 6, 1932, after about a year of construction. Its red-brick buildings with clay barrel-tile roofs, cast-stone basements and terra cotta details follow a Mediterranean Revival design. A grand divided boulevard leads to the six-story main building, while patient buildings ring a central oval mall in a Beaux Arts arrangement meant to give residents an open, healthful setting and help contain disease. Construction continued through 1939, and five more patient buildings were added in 1945 for World War II veterans, raising capacity to 2,040. Most interiors were plain and utilitarian, with only two lobbies keeping classical pilasters and terrazzo floors. The district is recognized for its architecture, its place in health care and federal policy, and for showing the Mediterranean Revival style more purely than any other veterans hospital of its era.","period_of_significance":"1930-1945","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Late 19th and Early 20th Century Revivals: Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival (Mediterranean Revival)","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still in use as a hospital (Veterans Affairs Medical Center); later modifications and additions have been on a small scale.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:23.137366-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/99/9729/40972999/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/94000672.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/94000672/fc3d3bbd65-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/94000672/fc3d3bbd65-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"Larry D. Moore","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VA_hospital_waco_2009.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Larry D. Moore</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VA_hospital_waco_2009.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40972999","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q109999730"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/mclennan-county/veterans-administration-hospital-historic-district-94000672/"}