The National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS) was created by the United States federal government in the waning days of the American Civil War, as a means to provide needed support for Union Army veterans of the war. Between 1865 and 1930 a total of eleven branches of this service were founded. The Mountain Branch was established in 1901 by the NHDVS through the efforts of Congressman Walter P. Brownlow. Land for the campus was purchased soon after the enabling legislation was signed, and major development took place between then and 1903, when the unfinished facility opened its doors. The campus was designed by New York City architect Joseph H. Freelander, a proponent of the Beaux Arts style of architecture, and landscape designer Carl Andersen. The many surviving buildings that make up the core of the present VA campus are in the Beaux Arts style. The complex received notice in architectural publications, including criticism that it was overly exotic for its comparatively rural location.[2]
The NHDVS was absorbed in the Veterans Administration (now the United States Department of Veterans Affairs) in 1930, at which time another round of construction took place. A third major round of building occurred in the 1970s and 1980s, after the VA developed a master plan for the site.[2]
The Mountain Home National Cemetery was established in 1903, in a manner similar to other national cemeteries located adjacent to NHDVS facilities.[2]
Most of the surviving campus continues to be used by the Department of Veterans of Affairs as the James H. Quillen VA Center.
