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"It's my feeling that most Miami Valley residents don't have any idea of our incredible past and what has occurred out here," said Hull, 47, administrative assistant to the chief of staff of the center and the center's historian. "It's one thing to uncover the history of a place like this. It's something else to get people to notice it."
Hull has already done plenty to promote the center's past. For openers, there's his "virtual museum" at www.dayton.med.va.gov/museum.
He also has installed glass-encased displays of photographs, documents and artifacts - some of which haven't been seen in more than a century - in the bustling lobby of the Patient Tower Hospital. He has also put together a slide show that scrunches 136 years of history into one educational and fun-filled hour.
"The fascinating story," Hull said, "was here all along. It was just waiting to be rediscovered and told."
The Dayton VA Medical Center opened its doors as one of three National Asylums for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in 1867. The other facilities were at Togus, Maine, and Milwaukee. Within a few months, 916 Civil War veterans were receiving care in Dayton.
The Dayton asylum - later renamed the Dayton Soldiers Home - was initially funded with unclaimed pay and fines assessed by the Union Army during the Civil War.
The Soldiers Home was a grand place.
Military bands played nightly concerts beneath the spreading leaves of towering oaks and maples. On Sunday afternoons, parasoled and elegantly dressed women and their escorts strolled the pristine pathways.
The first Civil War veteran buried at the Dayton VA Medical Center was Cornelius Solly, laid to rest in the cemetery on Sept. 11, 1867. His grave originally had a wooden marker, but it was later replaced by a marble tombstone provided by the U.S. government.
By 1884, the local Soldiers Home was caring for more than 7,000 Civil War veterans and was listed as the largest facility of its kind in the world.
"Of the first three national soldiers homes, Dayton was the shining star," Hull said. "We were successful, and they could point to us when it came time to ask for government money to operate. If we hadn't done it here, the VA might not even exist today."
From the beginning, the idea was to provide a home-like atmosphere for veterans in the hopes of getting them ready to re-enter society. Visitors were encouraged to stop in and honor the veterans, and soon they were coming by the hundreds of thousands. In the 1880s, the Dayton home was advertised as the most popular travelers' resort west of the Allegheny Mountains. And year after year, the home was expanded.
Construction of the Home Chapel - the first permanent church built by the federal government - began in 1868. The chapel, made of limestone quarried on the site by Civil War veterans, had steam-heated pew cushions and attracted such dignitaries as Bishop Milton Wright - the father of Orville, Wilbur and Katharine Wright - who preached to 350 veterans there on Jan. 10, 1897.
The 300-bed Home Hospital, opened in 1870, rose three stories and had indoor plumbing and a large steam-powered elevator.
About that same time, "ice cream saloons" on the grounds were keeping their treats cold with ice cut from the home's ponds, where Orville and Wilbur Wright often skated.
A hotel and restaurant were added in 1879. A year later, Memorial Hall - a magnificent, 1,500-seat concert hall - was dedicated. It would attract many of the top stage performers of the day, including actress Sarah Bernhardt.
The home also boasted a park-like area called The Grotto. The place had elk, deer and trained bears, and the water - steam-heated via lines from the greenhouses - teemed with alligators donated by a local merchant. There also was a nursery for the care of baby alligators.
The first electric organ in Montgomery County was installed in the Home Chapel in 1896, and from 1881 until about 1910, "The Garfield" - a miniature three-masted schooner used during the inauguration of President James Garfield - was anchored in one of the lakes at the home.
By the time World War I came along, there were many agencies caring for veterans. In 1930, one agency - the Veteran's Administration - was created to do it all. It became a cabinet-level operation in 1989 and was renamed the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Efforts are under way by the American Veterans Heritage Center Inc. to repair four of the historic buildings, with the chapel being the highest priority.
Even with all this, the best may be yet to come.
In September, the VA applied to the Ohio Historic Preservation Office to list the Dayton VA Medical Center on the National Register of Historic Places as a Historic District. The center is also seeking designation as a National Landmark.
"If that happens, we'll be the only VA in the U.S. with an entire campus that's a National Landmark," Hull said.
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