St. Cloud VA Medical Center Celebrating 100th Anniversary

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- The St. Cloud VA Medical Center is celebrating its 100th anniversary.

It has operated continuously since it was dedicated on September 17th, 1924 as one of 30 Veterans hospitals established to treat World War I Veterans.

St. Cloud VA

Public Affairs Officer Barry Venable says the community rallied to get the hospital built here.

Sometime in the summer of 1922 a lady living in St. Cloud Mrs. JP McDowell read a newspaper article that the Veterans Bureau was looking for a place to locate a hospital. She talked to her husband and some other members of the community and they went to the St. Cloud Commercial Club, the forerunner of the Chamber of Commerce, and said how can we land this facility in St. Cloud.

They raised $60,000 to buy four parcels of land along the Sauk River out on the prairie at the time.

St. Cloud VA

The four original buildings still exist today which were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.

Venable says it is a sprawling campus.

There are about 55 structures, but not all are patient care. We're on about 275 acres right now. At one point, during its zenith, the VA occupied about 600 acres of land in St. Cloud.

Venable says the VA leases land to the city for Joe Faber Field and the golf course. Also, the land for two Veteran apartments is also leased. Apollo High School sits on land formerly owned by the VA, and its original land stretched from the former Finger Hut to the former Great Northern Car Shops.

When it opened in 1924 it was a 500-bed neuropsychiatric hospital which meant its primary purpose was to keep veterans institutionalized.

The primary treatment method they referred to was occupational therapy. In the Upper Midwest that meant farming, so at one point the medical center was pretty much a self sufficient enclave that had dairy and beef herds, and a hog barn.

The St. Cloud VA no longer practices acute medicine and is now an outpatient facility.

St. Cloud VA

More St. Cloud VA History

The St. Cloud VA employs about 2,000 people, both full-time and part-time. It is the third largest employer in St. Cloud. Every two weeks it writes paychecks for about $10.25 million.

It primarily serves Veterans in a 27-county area in central and western Minnesota. But, its mental health program draws Veterans from across the country.

About 60 percent of its patients are currently Vietnam Veterans, 10 percent are Korean War Veterans, and one percent are World War II Veterans.

Not all of those 30 original VA Hospitals are still operating.

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On Saturday, September 14th the St. Cloud VA Medical Center invites the public to come to help celebrate with several activities including a Suicide Prevention Walk, a Resource Fair, a Veterans Creative Arts Festival Art Show, a 100th Anniversary Exhibit, and a Veteran Musical Concert.

Stearns History Museum