Clark County history: Now-deserted Barnes Hospital was a modern facility in 1904

Last spring, The Historic Trust opened the deserted Barnes Hospital for two tours. It was the first time civilians had seen the hospital’s inside in more than a decade. Primed with facts about the hospital, docents shared details with the curious public wandering the corridors, examining the wards, surgical suites and light-flooded reading rooms. Fallen plaster, dusty lavatories, boarded windows and the general chaos of decay let the groups know the hospital, which adjoins northbound Interstate 5, had seen better days.

Designed by U.S. Surgeon General Walter Wyman, a new, modern Vancouver Barracks hospital was eagerly awaited by Maj. Rudolph Ebbert, M.D. Ebbert had championed replacing the existing 26-bed hospital, built in the 1880s, because the Army planned to expand the post, according