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.
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
at a construction cost of $303,452.
A fourth story was added in 1866. The Marine Hospital
remained a part of Chelsea until 1940, when the hospital was moved to
Brighton. In 1942 the Naval Hospital acquired the building and
converted it into barracks for the hospital corpsmen.
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.
Shurtleff School – Essex Street
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.
