Then & Now: Caring for our veterans

The first building on what is now the VA Medical Center campus belonged to Columbus College, a private institution. It had been founded by the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls in Chamberlain but moved to Sioux Falls in 1921. The all-male school announced its closure in August 1929 because of financial difficulties.

After World War I, an office had opened in Sioux Falls to handle claims from that conflict and earlier events. It soon became a regional office to process benefits for all South Dakota veterans. Congressman Royal C. Johnson of South Dakota led efforts to consolidate administration of veterans’ benefits, and in 1930 Congress established the Veterans Administration. Legislation to build a facility to be named the Royal C. Johnson Veterans Memorial Hospital was introduced in Congress.

After an influenza outbreak struck the Army Air Force Base operating in Sioux Falls during World War II, the War Department purchased vacant buildings on the college campus. An actual hospital did not open at that time. The former college’s main building was used as part of the Army Air Force’s radio training school in Sioux Falls.

A postcard in the Siouxland Heritage Museum’s collection notes the hospital opened in July 1949 at a cost of about $5 million. At that time, it was a 272-bed general medical and surgical hospital.

Today, the VA Medical Center offers primary care and a pharmacy; mental health care, including military sexual trauma and PTSD care and a veterans crisis line; specialty care such as audiology and speech, dental/oral surgery, ophthalmology, optometry, orthopedics, and palliative and hospice care; and social programs and services. That includes adaptive sports, caregiver support, homeless veteran care, LGBTQ+ veteran care, minority veteran care, patient advocates, social work and women veteran care.

Since 1989, the Veterans Administration has been known as the Department of Veterans Affairs. The old Columbus College building, behind the outpatient mental health building that now is under construction, is undergoing renovation. Office space is being returned to its original function as an auditorium, and the original beams have been exposed. The original entrance will be restored.