Danville Branch, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers Historic District

Located on the eastern edge of Danville, Illinois, this roughly 300-acre campus began as the Danville Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. Congress authorized it in 1897 after lobbying by local Congressman Joseph Cannon, construction started in 1898, and the first veteran was admitted that October. The district holds 70 buildings, of which 47 contribute, along with a thirty-acre national cemetery. Most buildings are red brick with simple sandstone details and Georgian Revival influence, including ten similar two-and-a-half-story wards, a mess hall with a clock cupola, and staff quarters. The 1905 Carnegie Library is the most ornate building, in Classical Revival style. Winding roads lead past a golf course, gardens, a pond and farm fields that once served therapeutic purposes. The Home was designed as a planned community offering shelter, education, training and employment. Today the Veterans Affairs medical center and a community college share the grounds, and alterations to historic buildings have been minimal.