Historic California Posts, Camps, Stations
and Airfields
Naval Convalescent Hospital, Yosemite
(Naval Special Hospital, Yosemite)
Sailors in the main
dining room circa 1944.
History by
the Society for the History of Navy Medicine
The Navy leased the famed Ahwahnee Hotel
in Yosemite National Park in 1943. Commissioned on 25 June, “its
purpose was the rehabilitation of sick and injured service men
in order to restore them to duty or return them to civilian life
in the best possible physical condition.” Despite its spectacular
location, the isolation of the place wore heavily on patients’
morale so that the Secretary of the Navy specifically approved
the sale of beer–the only Naval hospital to enjoy this amenity–with
a subsequent improvement in patient outlook. The hospital was
at its busiest in the spring and summer of 1945, with a patient
load averaging more than 750. It was decommissioned 15 December
1945. Today, one may wait several months to get reservations
in this famed hotel
