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Old soldiers' home


An old soldiers' home is a military veteran's retirement home, nursing home, or hospital, or sometimes even an institution for the care of the widows and orphans of a nation's soldiers, sailors, and marines, etc.

The first national veterans' home in the United States was the United States Naval Home approved in 1811 but not opened until 1834 in the Philadelphia Naval Yard. The Naval Home was moved to Gulfport, Mississippi in 1976. It was subsequently opened to veterans of other services and is now the Gulfport Campus of the Armed Forces Retirement Home.

The first Army national old soldiers' home in the U.S. was established in Washington, D.C. in 1851.General Winfield Scott founded the Soldier's Home in Washington DC and another (since fallen into disuse) in Harrodsburgh, Kentucky with about $118,000 in leftover proceeds of assessments on occupied Mexican towns and the sale of captured tobacco in the Mexican–American War (1846–48). The Old Soldier's Home (Washington), now known as the Armed Forces Retirement Home, was the site of President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldiers' Home, which served as Abraham Lincoln's summer home during the Civil War and is adjacent to National Cemetery, the first federal military cemetery in the US. President Lincoln's Cottage has been designated a National Monument, and recently underwent renovation. It reopened to the public on President's Day, 18 February 2008. The Home has remained in continuous use since its establishment in 1851. It is located on a beautiful 250-acre (1.0 km2) wooded campus overlooking the U.S. Capitol in the heart of D.C. and continues to serve as a retirement home for U.S. enlisted men and women. Both the Washington D.C. and Gulfport soldiers' and sailors' homes are funded through a small monthly contribution from the pay of members of the U.S. Armed Services.


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