[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 103 (Thursday, July 25, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1361-E1362]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    SAVE HISTORIC VETERANS BUILDINGS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. TONY P. HALL

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 24, 2002

  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, for more than 40 years, since the 
enactment by Congress of the landmark National Historic Preservation 
Act, preservation of our historic landmarks has been a mission of the 
Federal government and its agencies. That is no less true of the 
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which owns 1,860 nationally 
significant buildings--more than any department except the Departments 
of the Interior and Defense. However, no department faces more 
challenges than the Department of Veterans Affairs in preserving its 
historic buildings. That is why today I am introducing the Veterans 
Heritage Preservation Act of 2002, a bill establishing a comprehensive 
approach to assisting the department in fulfilling its historic 
preservation mission while honoring Americans veterans.
  The sheer scope of the task is daunting. The VA's historic buildings 
go back to a 1735 mill on the bank of the Susquehanna River in Perry 
Point, Maryland, and include a series of residential communities built 
for Civil War veterans. The VA also owns historic hospital buildings 
and living quarters constructed by the Veterans Bureau following World 
War I. Many of these buildings have outstanding architecture and some 
are sites of important events. They are located in almost every state. 
All represent the commitment made by the Federal government to look 
after our war veterans.
  As the cost of health care has risen in recent years, the Department 
has focused on providing veterans with cost effective health care. This 
has made obsolete many of the Department's historic buildings which 
have been chosen to conserve funds. Some of these treasures have been 
allowed to deteriorate and ultimately face demolition. Because the 
Department's historic preservation requirements are funded from the 
same allocation for patient care, the Department has consistently 
chosen to underfund its historic preservation mission.
  The legislation I offer today eliminates this difficult choice by 
establishing a Veterans Heritage Preservation Fund dedicated to the 
Department's preservation needs and authorized at an annual level of 
$20 million, subject to appropriations. The fund would be used to 
evaluate, stabilize, preserve, renovate, and restore the Department's 
historic buildings. The fund could also be used for grants to State and 
local governments and non-profit organizations in connection with the 
adaptive reuse of historic buildings. The bill also establishes within 
the Department a high level Office of Historic Preservation to monitor 
the Department's historic preservation program.
  The bill also encourages leasing historic VA properties to groups 
that will preserve and restore them and promotes the VA to enter into 
public-private partnerships for historic preservation. The goal is to 
keep the VA's historic buildings alive by finding new uses for them. 
Even if they are used for community purposes that aren't directly 
related to veterans' care, they will honor our veterans by preserving 
these important cultural legacies.
  The VA's historic buildings represent an important national treasure 
that can never be replaced. They serve as a link between all Americans 
and past generations of veterans. Writing in the July 1, 2001, issue of 
the Paralyzed Veterans of America Paralegia News, Thomas D. Davies, 
Jr., AIA, former director of architecture for Paralyzed Veterans of 
America, said, `The VA's historic structures provide direct evidence of 
America's proud heritage of veterans' care and can enhance our 
understanding of the lives of soldiers and sailors who fashioned our 
country.''
  The need quickly to preserve historic VA buildings increased in June 
when the VA announced an initiative to identify and close more 
buildings that are considered outdated. The initiative, Phase II of the 
ongoing planning process called the Capital Asset Realignment for 
Enhanced Services (CARES), is expected to be completed in two years. It 
is critical for the VA to prepare to handle the large number of its 
historic buildings which could join the endangered list.
  The legislation follows a joint recommendation earlier this year by 
AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and 
Veterans of Foreign Wars, which called on Congress to enact legislation 
to systematically preserve the most important historic buildings owned 
by the VA and to promote the reuse of historic properties by local 
communities.
  Most of the threatened buildings were part of the National Home for 
Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, created by one of the last acts signed by 
President Lincoln before his assassination, and constructed between 
1867 and 1930. The buildings are now owned by the VA. The National Home 
evolved into complete planned communities with barracks, mess halls, 
chapels, schools, hotels, libraries, band stands, amusements halls, 
theaters, and shops, many of which still stand, and include outstanding 
examples of 19th and early 20th century architecture.
  The National Home had facilities in eleven cities. The cities, and 
dates the branches were founded are: Togus, Maine (1866); Milwaukee, 
Wisconsin (1867); Dayton, Ohio (1867); Hampton, Virginia (1870); 
Leavenworth, Kansas (1885); Santa Monica, California (1888); Marion, 
Indiana (1888); Danville, Illinois (1898); Johnson City, Tennessee 
(1901); Hot Springs, South Dakota (1902); and Bath, New York (1929).
  The National Home represents many historical developments, including 
the Nation's first the first large-scale attempt by the Federal 
government to care for veterans. The buildings included the first non-
religious planned communities, the first Federal effort to establish 
large-scale rehabilitation programs, a significant expansion of Federal 
benefits to citizen-veterans, a landmark in the development of Federal 
responsibility for the social safety net, and the first permanent 
churches constructed by the Federal government.
  Before it was merged with the VA in 1930, the National Home cared for 
more than 100,000 Civil War and other veterans, many of whom were 
shattered physically and spiritually from the carnage of war. These 
buildings are an important part of our national heritage as well as 
significant contributors to the history and culture of the communities 
where they are located.
  According to Professor Patrick J. Kelly, author of Creating a 
National Home (Harvard University Press), ``The National Home for 
Disabled Volunteer Soldiers is an institution that all Americans can 
treasure. This institution was an early and strikingly generous example 
of the federal government's commitment the care of the nation's 
veterans.''
  Kelly wrote, ``The surviving buildings of the National Home offer 
contemporary Americans

[[Page E1362]]

a cultural treasure that serves to remind us of the profound sacrifices 
made by soldiers during the Civil War, and of the resolve of post 
Civil-War America the sacrifices of its veterans would not be ignored. 
That buildings of the National Home have much to teach us about the 
past, but perhaps even more importantly, offer Americans valuable 
lessons for veterans care that apply to today and to the future.''
  More than 100 historic VA buildings from all eras are underutilized 
or vacant and are threatened with deterioration and ultimate 
destruction. Those buildings include an impressive row of Victorian 
lodging quarters from Ford Howard in Baltimore County, Maryland, and an 
elaborate Victorian theater in Milwaukee which hosted all the big stars 
of the day, including a child pianist who lived across the street, 
Liberace. An entire series of 39 Georgian and Romanesque Revival style 
structures by master builder James McGonigle in Leavenworth, Kansas, 
was so close to demolition that in 2000 the National Trust for Historic 
Preservation included the buildings on its list of America's 11 most 
endangered historic places. Those buildings are still threatened.
  I represent Dayton, Ohio, which was the headquarters of the National 
Home and its largest branch. A number of buildings in my district are 
in danger of deterioration and ultimate demolition, including the 
building that housed the national administrative offices for the 
National Home and the first permanent church constructed by the Federal 
government--a building which was constructed by the veterans 
themselves. My constituents--veteran and non-veteran--are concerned 
about this potential loss to their historical heritage.
  Mr. Speaker, providing for the Department of Veteran Affairs' 
historic preservation requirements in no way need to diminish funding 
for the Department's other missions and is fully consistent with the 
Department's broader goal of honoring and caring for the Nation's 
veterans. It will require some money and it will require a lot of will. 
With this legislation, I hope to provide a framework for the VA to 
better carry out its responsibility to preserve the historic legacy 
under its control that belongs to veterans and to all Americans.

                          ____________________