This is a photograph showing the hospital building at Fort Hays. The main ward of the prefabricated pine hospital is on the left; it was forty by twenty-four feet. The smaller ward was twenty-eight by twenty-four feet, and this building contained the surgeon's office and dispensary. The two buildings were connected by a fourteen by twelve foot passageway. A kitchen and dining room were attached to the rear of the main ward. The post hospital aided civilian as well as military personnel and was the finest and best-equipped hospital in the region as long as the post was active. After its closing in 1889, the land and buildings of Fort Hays were turned over to the Department of the Interior, which later transferred them to the state of Kansas in 1900. The hospital building was used by the Fort Hays Normal School and was the first college building. When Frontier Historical Park was opened at the site in 1929, only the blockhouse and guardhouse remained of the original fort buildings. The two officers' quarters had been sold at auction in 1902 and moved into town at the time the other buildings were being sold for scrap. The officers' quarters were relocated in 1964 and 1987. Fort Hays is one of the historic sites maintained by the Kansas State Historical Society.
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