William Beaumont Army Hospital Under Construction, 1921

The image shows William Beaumont General Hospital under construction in 1920/21. In the beginning, the army hospital was located at Fort Bliss. In 1920, construction began on 272 acres of rocky, cactus-covered land Northwest of Fort Bliss proper to build a new hospital to be named William Beaumont General Hospital in honor of Dr. Beaumont. Army Capt. (Dr.) William Beaumont did research on gastric juice and the physiology of digestion between 1820 and 1850. The hospital made of tile and stucco opened July 2, 1921, with a bed capacity for 403 patients. During and after World War II, the William Beaumont General Hospital expanded and more departments and facilities were added. As Fort Bliss continued to grow, the hospital outgrew its facilities. The alternative was a new hospital -- built alongside and to the west of the old facilities. It was dedicated on July 2, 1972. In 1973, the hospital became William Beaumont Army Medical Center, subordinate to the Army Health Services Command. The Omar N. Bradley building, an addition to the west-side of the main hospital, was opened in 1982. In November 1995, WBAMC became one of the largest buildings in El Paso with another 254,000 square feet of floor space for the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Center. Now, the WBAMC complex has more than one million square feet of floor space for patient care and administrative duties. In fiscal year 2014, an average of more than 3,200 patients were seen daily. The Tertiary Health Care, Research, Graduate Medical Education Programs and affiliations with institutions such as Texas Tech University School of Medicine, University of Texas at El Paso School of Nursing, and El Paso Community College Nursing School provide the cornerstones for the medical center. Furthermore, WBAMC offers a broad range of programs in many medical disciplines.