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Historic California Posts: Hammond General Hospital Page 2 of 3 General Hospital prior to their deployment to the European Theater of Operations. SCU 1975 was subordinate to the Army Service Forces' 9th Service Command headquartered at Fort Douglas, Utah. By 1945, the Hammond General Hospital was a 2,556-bed facility with approximately 240 buildings and other structures, including 78 wards, clinics, barracks, offices, warehouses, 6 mess halls, pump houses, and utility shops. The building inventory is presented in Table 3-2 and the general layout is shown in figures 3-1 through 3-5. 4,427 linear feet of railway siding that spurs off of Southern Pacific Railroad Fresno Line used for patient and freight transportation; road system consists of 1,796 square yards of paved (bituminous) roads, 18,276 square yards of gravel roads, and 30,286 square yards of paved parking and storage area; The 31 December 1945 War Department report, Owned, Leased and Sponsored Facilities, Hammond General Hospital is shown to have operated a convalescent section and a 250 man prisoner of war branch camp located near the town of Vernalis. This information is included in this report for operational history purposes only and this site is not otherwise included in this report. In December 1945 Hammond General Hospital was closed by the U.S. Army. With the closing of the hospital, the State of California set its eyes on the facility as a possible state mental hospital. On 20 December 1945, Governor Earl Warren sent a telegraph to the Federal Surplus Property Administration (after March 1946, the War Assets Administration (WAA)) expressing an interest in acquiring the former Hammond General Hospital for that purpose. On 9 April 1946, the USACE reported the Site as surplus to the needs of the U.S. Army to the WAA who assumed jurisdiction over the Site. In a letter dated 19 April 1946 to Lieutenant General E.B. Gregory, Chairman of the WAA; General Omar N. Bradley, Director of the Veterans Administration, waived any claim to the hospital, thus clearing the way for the State of California to obtain the Site. On 17 November 1946, the WAA granted a Right of Entry to the State of California to begin the process of converting the former Hammond General Hospital into a state hospital pending a formal transfer of the facility. Through the WAA, the former Hammond General Hospital and its assets (i.e., medical and support equipment) were quitclaim deeded to the State of California on 20 October 1947, who operated it as the Modesto State Hospital under the Department of Mental Hygiene (After 1971, Department of Mental Health) until 1970. On 6 and 10 August 1970, the State of California respectively quitclaimed the former Hammond General Hospital/Modesto State Hospital to the Yosemite Junior College District and the County of Stanislaus. On 17 March 1947 and 12 October 1978, the County of Stanislaus quitclaimed two parcels to the Yosemite Junior College District. The Yosemite Junior College District developed their portions of the Site into the West Campus of Modesto Junior College. The County of Stanislaus has developed their portion of the former Hammond General Hospital/Modesto State Hospital into a consolidated juvenile justice center. Known Units at Hammond General Hospital Service Command Unit 1975 47th Field Hospital file://C:\Documents and Settings\Steve\Desktop\Historic Califnmin Pnstc TTammnnrl CiPnPr ')n 71')00r