Stop 22 – Post Hospital, Leonard Wood Hall
(Building 41408)
In 1884 a plan was submitted for a 24-bed post hospital to replace the small 8-bed hospital on Officers Row. The adobe building was completed in 1885 and Assistant Surgeon Leonard Wood was assigned to it in 1886. The young contract surgeon, bored with his medical career, joined Captain Henry Lawton and the 4th Cavalry in the final pursuit of Geronimo, earning the Medal of Honor on the two-month campaign. Wood later commanded the Rough Riders in Cuba in the Spanish American War of 1898 and served in the Philippines, eventually being promoted to general and Chief of Staff of the Army in 1910. The new hospital contained a dispensary, a surgeon’s office, two operating wards on either side of the main building to catch appropriate sunlight for surgeries, four rooms, an isolation ward, a storeroom, a kitchen, and washrooms. A large ward building and a larger kitchen were added in later years. The building served as post hospital until 1941 when it was replaced by the large station hospital built in the Infantry Division cantonment between Old Post and the gate to Sierra Vista. Today it contains finance-related offices.