Armed Forces Retirement Home
[1] Both Homes are model retirement centers, where residents can maintain an independent lifestyle in an environment designed for safety, comfort and personal enrichment.
Extensive on-site recreational facilities (swimming pool, gym, movie theatre, computer game room, etc,) are available.
While residents are welcome to park and use private vehicles and RVs at the Homes, in-house transportation is offered to local hospitals, military commissaries, exchanges and shopping.
The obligations they undertake, risking life and well-being for the greater good, are in many ways extraordinary.The colonial settlers brought with them from Britain ideas about the responsibilities of the individual towards his community, and of the community towards the volunteer soldier: It was in the reign of Elizabeth, not long before the beginning of English colonization in America ... What to do with ... soldiers returning from her wars ...
The Honor of our Nation, that such as have since the 25th day of March 1588, adventured their lives and lost their limbs ... be relieved and rewarded ... that others may be encouraged to perform the like.
Rather than pay these troops a service pension upon retirement, King Charles II had erected an invalids home in 1690, now called the Royal Hospital Chelsea .
During the American Revolution, both the states and the Continental Congress made provision for disability pensions,[6] but Congress was reluctant to fund so-called half-pay-for-life service pensions for commissioned officers, because they wanted no part of "Standing Armies," or "Career Soldiers" and had no money in any event.
[9] The absence of retirement pensions drove efforts to establish homes for the disabled and decrepit soldiers and sailors.
The following year, 2 March 1799, an act of Congress authorized U.S. Navy Seamen admission to the Merchant Marine hospitals.
In addition, all proceeds from fines or forfeitures charged misbehaving sailors and officers were added to the Naval Hospital Fund.
Naval Hospitals which included the phrase "... to provide a permanent asylum for disabled and decrepit navy officers, seamen, and marines.
"[14] The addition of an "Asylum" (meaning "refuge" in 18th Century English) was in lieu of a retirement or service pension for naval personnel.
This act eventually resulted in the purchase of the Pemberton Estate in 1826 for $17,000,[15] which came with a large mansion to be used as a hospital, and the decision to construct a new building for an asylum.
"The entire cost of the building, excluding the finishing of the attics, was $195,600: about four-ninths of which came from the Treasury directly, the remainder from the Hospital Fund.
Structural defects noted by Lieutenant Commander George Stockton in his 1886 paper on the Naval Home included the home basement, described as "low and damp" with insufficient drainage, The rooms in the attic were too hot for comfort, and asking the old and decrepit to climb up and down three flights of stairs from attic to the improperly placed dining commons in the basement was difficult for some of the inmates.
For the next twenty years people like Major Robert Anderson (of Fort Sumter fame) promoted the idea of homes for retired soldiers, without success.
The problem was to develop a system of funding a Soldiers' Home that would not involve any expenditure of public money.
He got answers from about half the regiments, added the twenty cents a month for the hospital fund received from the 9,438 enlisted soldiers then on active duty, and was able to estimate the annual revenue from both sources at $42,642, which turned out to be on the low side.
The new Board of Commissioners decided to establish four homes, one each in New Orleans, Louisiana; East Pascagoula, Mississippi; Harrodsburg, Kentucky; and Washington, D.C.[citation needed] During the 19th and most of the 20th centuries the U.S.
[29] A "Guard House" (the Navy calls them "Brigs") was built at the Soldiers' Home to confine inmates "absent without leave".
[30] At 11 o'clock this morning, Anthony Prussock, a marine, was arraigned before Alderman Kenny, on the charge of causing the death of Wm.
The homes have open bars that sell beer and hard liquor, but "public intoxication" is prohibited.
Below are recreational activities available without cost: Outdoor swimming pool (lap swimming and water aerobics), professionally equipped fitness center and physical fitness programs, library (print, audio and video), individual work areas for arts & crafts, woodworking, painting and other hobbies, bike shop, bowling and bocce center, card, game, and recreation rooms, computer classroom and computer center, fully equipped media room for movies and presentations, multi-purpose area for live entertainment and dances, spacious grounds with basketball, horse shoes and walking paths, bicycling, bus tours to area attractions.
Nine-hole golf course and driving range (carts provided for residents), two fishing ponds for crappie, bass, bream and catfish, professionally equipped fitness center and physical fitness programs, walking trails, two extensive print, audio and video libraries, individual work areas for ceramics, woodworking, painting and other hobbies, auto hobby shop, bowling, card, game, and recreation rooms, computer center, garden plots, fully equipped 667-seat theater for movies and live entertainment, bus tours to area attractions.
A notation in the "Congressional Record for the Navy Affairs Committee" in 1907–09 notes that the Naval Home Trust still had a balance of $14 million partly from the capture of Prize Vessels, per an Act of 1870, and from suits for depredation of timber belonging to the United States.
[37] Built in 1843 by the banker George Washington Riggs as a summer cottage for his family, it was a part of the first parcel acquired by the U.S. Military Asylum.
[38] In November 2011, the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington and surrounding community held a meeting about ending years of neglect in relating to one another.
Friends also holds annual community celebrations with the Home, including Spring Fling, which occurs the first Saturday in May, July 4 Fireworks, and Fall Fun Fest, which happens on the first Sunday in October.
Thousands of people from the community attended these events to better connect the residents and historic campus with the surrounding nation's capital.
[40] Volunteer opportunities are available every week of the year and details can be found on the Friends of the Soldiers Home website.
