The Forest Glen Annex is a

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

installation in the Forest Glen Park neighborhood of Silver Spring,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

, USA. It is situated between Brookville Road and Linden Lane. Since 1999, the Annex has been the site of the

Walter Reed Army Institute of Research The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) is the largest biomedical research facility administered by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The institute is centered at the Forest Glen Annex, in the Forest Glen Park part of the uni ...

(WRAIR) and the Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC), along with smaller units. The Forest Glen property was acquired by the Army during the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

era, and was formerly known as the “Walter Reed Forest Glen Annex”, a branch of the

Walter Reed Army Medical Center The Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC)known as Walter Reed General Hospital (WRGH) until 1951was the U.S. Army's flagship medical center from 1909 to 2011. Located on in the District of Columbia, it served more than 150,000 active and ret ...

(WRAMC) in

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morg ...

Facilities

In addition to the large research laboratories located in the Annex's "

Daniel K. Inouye Daniel Ken Inouye ( ; September 7, 1924 – December 17, 2012) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Hawaii from 1963 until his death in 2012. Beginning in 1959, he was the first U.S. representative ...

Building" (Building 503), the post includes a

commissary A commissary is a government official charged with oversight or an ecclesiastical official who exercises in special circumstances the jurisdiction of a bishop. In many countries, the term is used as an administrative or police title. It often c ...

, a child care center, and a Fisher House. There are also football and baseball fields, and picnicking facilities. The Forest Glen Annex campus includes the National Park Seminary Historic District which is being redeveloped separately from the military area. The associated Glen Haven housing area in nearby Wheaton, also now owned by Fort Detrick, has 240 quarters for enlisted soldiers and for officers in grades O-1 through O-3.

History

The land on which the Forest Glen Annex now stands was originally part of a huge tract belonging to the influential Carroll family of colonial times, which lived nearby. During the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

, the land was owned by Alfred Ray, a southern sympathizer. In July 1864, Ray allowed the troops of Confederate General

Jubal Early Jubal Anderson Early (November 3, 1816 – March 2, 1894) was a Virginia lawyer and politician who became a Confederate States of America, Confederate general during the American Civil War. Trained at the United States Military Academy, Early r ...

to encamp on his land, before sallying down nearby Brookville Road for an unsuccessful raid on Washington, D.C., which ended in the

Battle of Fort Stevens The Battle of Fort Stevens was an American Civil War battle fought July 11–12, 1864, in what is now Northwest Washington, D.C., as part of the Valley Campaigns of 1864 between forces under Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Early and ...

. Ray spent time in a federal prison for his action. During the period 1887 to 1894, the site was a short-lived hotel and casino, part of an ill-fated land development scheme. A prestigious

finishing school A finishing school focuses on teaching young women social graces and upper-class cultural rites as a preparation for entry into society. The name reflects that it follows on from ordinary school and is intended to complete the education, wi ...

, the

National Park Seminary National Park Seminary — later called National Park College — was a private girls' school open from 1894 to 1942. Located in Forest Glen Park, Maryland, its name alludes to nearby Rock Creek Park. The historic campus is to be preserved as t ...

, occupied the site between 1894 and 1936, after which a women's

junior college A junior college (sometimes referred to colloquially as a juco, JuCo or JC) is a post-secondary educational institution offering vocational training designed to prepare students for either skilled trades and technical occupations and workers in ...

, the National Park College, was located there between 1937 and 1942. With U.S. involvement in World War II, the Army's

Walter Reed General Hospital The Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC)known as Walter Reed General Hospital (WRGH) until 1951was the U.S. Army's flagship medical center from 1909 to 2011. Located on in the District of Columbia, it served more than 150,000 active and ret ...

needed more space for the convalescence and rehabilitation of returning veterans. Exerting its authority under the War Powers Act, it bought the “National Park College” for $800,000 in 1942. In addition, the Army bought a much larger area of over to the south of the school – then an operating dairy farm and a former tobacco plantation – which are now the operational portion of the installation. From 1942 through 1977, the several buildings at the north end of the post housed the “Walter Reed Army Convalescent Center-Forest Glen Annex”, where Army providers treated soldiers wounded in Europe, Korea and Vietnam. Services included

prosthetics In medicine, a prosthesis (plural: prostheses; from grc, πρόσθεσις, prósthesis, addition, application, attachment), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trau ...

audiology Audiology (from Latin , "to hear"; and from Greek , ''-logia'') is a branch of science that studies hearing, balance, and related disorders. Audiologists treat those with hearing loss and proactively prevent related damage. By employing vario ...

speech therapy Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if they are th ...

physical rehabilitation Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is one of the allied health professions. It is provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through physical examination, diagnosis, management, prognosis, patien ...

and a therapeutic art studio. The site was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1972. When the last patient was discharged in 1977, the Army largely abandoned these buildings. In the late 1990s,

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and power ...

Paul Sarbanes Paul Spyros Sarbanes (; February 3, 1933 – December 6, 2020) was an American politician and attorney. A member of the Democratic Party from Maryland, he served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1971 to 1977 ...

directed that funds be used for site stabilization of the old National Park College. In 1999, the Army began taking formal steps to "excess" the area now known as the "National Park Seminary Historic District." Authority over the facility was transferred on 1 October 2008 to the Installation Commander,

Fort Detrick, Maryland Fort Detrick () is a United States Army Futures Command installation located in Frederick, Maryland. Historically, Fort Detrick was the center of the U.S. biological weapons program from 1943 to 1969. Since the discontinuation of that program, i ...

. In 2011, in accordance with the most recent

Base Realignment and Closure Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) is a process by a United States federal government commission to increase United States Department of Defense efficiency by coordinating the realignment and closure of military installations following the end ...

(BRAC) recommendations, the Forest Glen Annex became home to the

National Museum of Health and Medicine The National Museum of Health and Medicine (NMHM) is a museum in Silver Spring, Maryland, near Washington, DC. The museum was founded by U.S. Army Surgeon General William A. Hammond as the Army Medical Museum (AMM) in 1862; it became the NMHM in ...

(NMHM) as well as a "Joint Center of Excellence in Infectious Disease Research." The former

Army and Air Force Exchange Service The Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES, also referred to as The Exchange and The PX or The BX) is the retailer in U.S. Army and Air Force installations worldwide. The Exchange is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and its director/chief exe ...

(AAFES)

post exchange An exchange is a type of retail store found on United States military installations worldwide. Originally akin to trading posts, they now resemble contemporary department stores or strip malls. Exact terminology varies by armed service; some exa ...

was repurposed as office space and a new

Navy Exchange Navy Exchange is a retail store chain owned and operated by the United States Navy under the Navy Exchange Service Command (NEXCOM). The Navy Exchange offers goods and services to active military, retirees, and certain civilians on Navy installati ...

(NEX) was opened at the nearby

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center The Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC), formerly known as the National Naval Medical Center and colloquially referred to as the Bethesda Naval Hospital, Walter Reed, or Navy Med, is a United States' tri-service military medi ...

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which ...

References

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