A law passed by Congress and signed by President John Adams,
on July 16, 1798, provided, that each seaman pay twenty cents a month
toward possible future hospital care. Massachusetts set up a (
Merchant) Marine hospital on Castle Island, the following year. In
1802, Congress appropriated $15,000 for the erection of a hospital.
The Marine Hospital, was moved from Castle Island to new quarters, in
the new Charlestown Navy Yard, in January 1804. After twenty one
years of occupancy in the Navy Yard, the Marine Hospital, was evicted.
Due to the Navy’s urgent need of the land, the Hospital vacated it’s
quarters on April 22, 1825. Patients were moved to temporary, rented
quarters in Charlestown.
Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff and Thomas Williams, offered equal parcels
of land, from adjourning farms, of five acres each. This area ran on
a line from the angle of Park and Hawthorn Streets, to Maverick
Street, between Pearl and Shurtleff Streets, down to the Chelsea
Creek. The area was all on high ground and in close proximity to the
harbor. Dr. Shurtleff and Mr. Williams were paid two thousand dollars
each plus sixty eight dollars for expenses.
A three story building, of rough stone, measuring one hundred five
feet by fifty feet, was erected. Wings were provided for the doctors
and the workers. A wharf was constructed on the creek, and the entire
property fenced in. Construction was completed at a cost of
$27,603.39, approximately $4000 over original estimate. Finally, on
October 4, 1827, patients were moved into the new Marine Hospital in
Chelsea. (Photo above).
Twenty five years later, the need for a larger and better equipped
building, coupled with the growth and facility needs of Chelsea, in
that location, required a move. On March 3, 1855, through an act of
Congress, ten acres of land was bought for $50,000, for the
construction of a new Marine Hospital building, on the Naval Hospital
grounds. A three story red brick building was completed December 1857.
A fourth story was added in 1866. The Marine Hospital remained a
part of Chelsea until 1940, when the hospital was moved to Brighton.
On May 18, 1857, the old Marine Hospital building and ensuing land
was sold at auction. The City of Chelsea purchased the hospital
building. The building was converted into a grammar school, and named
the Shurtleff School. The rest of the land was auctioned off in lots.
The Shurtleff School was completely destroyed in the fire of 1908. A
new and larger Shurtleff School was built on a new site, after the
fire. Today the Shurtleff School is the Early Learning Center, a
beautifully renovated, state of the arts, building, The Quigley
Playstead, on Essex Street, now occupies the site of the original
Shurtleff School and the first Marine Hospital in Chelsea. The Marine
Hospital, on the old Naval Hospital grounds, is today, a modern
apartment building.