Lyceum Hall Hospital

The Lyceum was built as library and meeting hall in 1839, and is now a City museum. During the war, the Lyceum Hall held 80 beds, and served as a ward of the nearby Downtown Baptist Church General Hospital.
Page updated on January 10, 2022 at 1:49 PM

History of the Lyceum Hall Hospital

201 S. Washington Street

Built as library and meeting hall in 1839, for two decades before the Civil War The Lyceum was the intellectual and cultural center of Alexandria, but the war interrupted its educational activities. Like most of the other large structures in town, the building was seized in the spring of 1861 for use by the Union Army. The Lyceum Hall held 80 beds, and in 1862 served as a ward of the nearby Downtown Baptist Church General Hospital.  

Lyceum Hall Hospital
The Lyceum Hall Hospital. Photo by Andrew J. Russell. 
Lyceum Hall, Capacity 80. (The Photographic History of the Civil War in Ten Volumes)
Lyceum Hall, Capacity 80. (The Photographic History of the Civil War in Ten Volumes)

First Person Account

 First Person Accounts from the Union Hospitals

Clarissa Jones head nurse at the Baptist Church hospital in Alexandria, wrote a letter from the Lyceum Hospital, dated September 12, 1862.

Civil War nurse Clarissa Jones, cropped. Courtesy The Nation Museum of Civil War Medicine.
Clarissa Jones, courtesy The National Museum of Civil War Medicine, Frederick, Maryland. 

Historic Images

Image 1:  

  • Title: The Lyceum Hall Hospital
  • Photographer: Andrew J. Russell
  • Image Source: The Lyceum: Alexandria’s History Museum (museum purchase).
  • Image Date: 1861-1865
  • Medium: Photograph

Image 2: 

  • Title: Lyceum Hall, Capacity 80 
  • Image Source: The Photographic History of the Civil War in Ten Volumes. Francis Trevelyan Miller, Editor in Chief, Volume Seven, Prisons and Hospitals. New York, The Review of Reviews Co., 1911, p. 234.
  • Image Date: 1861-1865
  • Medium: Photograph
  • Rights Advisory: Out of Copyright  

Quartermaster Map

 Quartermaster Map Sheet 12 shows the Lyceum and other nearby hospitals. 

Lyceum Hall Hospital, Quartermaster map.
Detail of Quartermaster map showing the Lyceum Hall Hospital.

 

Location and the Site Today

Alexandria's History Museum at The Lyceum (exterior)
Alexandria History Museum at the Lyceum.

The hospital was located at 201 S. Washington Street. Today, Alexandria History Museum at The Lyceum is open to the public, and owned and operated by the City of Alexandria.