1100 Alabama Avenue
Taking Public Transport (the Metro)
Take the Metro green line train to Congress Heights Metro station on Alabama Avenue. There is a pedestrian gate leading directly from the station grounds into Saint Elizabeths Hospital grounds.
From Maryland and Virginia
Follow the BELTWAY (Interstate 495) to Interstate 295N. Follow Interstate 295N to Malcolm X Avenue/South Capital Street/Bolling AFB exit (Exit 2). Take a left turn from the off ramp onto Malcolm X Ave, and proceed to the first traffic signal. Go through the signal (Martin Luther King Jr. Ave) to Stop Sign (8th Street). Turn right on 8th Street and proceed a short distance to the traffic signal. Turn left at traffic signal (you are now on Alabama Avenue) Go through next traffic signal. At the second traffic signal (11th Pl), turn left through Gate. At the Guard Shack, ask for directions to the new hospital.
From Downtown Washington
Take the Southeast Expressway to Interstate 295S and continue south to the Malcolm X Avenue/Bolling AFB exit (Exit 2). Turn left onto Malcolm X Avenue and proceed through the Second traffic signal until you reach Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. Continue through the signal (Martin Luther King Jr. Ave) to Stop Sign (8th Street). Turn right on 8th Street and proceed a short distance to the traffic signal. Turn left at traffic signal (you are now on Alabama Avenue) Go through next traffic signal. At the second traffic signal (11thPl), turn left through Gate. At the Guard Shack, ask for directions to the new hospital.
In 1852, Dorothea Lynde Dix selected this commanding location with a panoramic view of the city for Saint Elizabeths Hospital because it exemplified a tenant of moral therapy that a serene setting was critical to patients’ recovery. She then persuaded Thomas Blagden, a local farmer, to sell his choicest acreage for the $25,000 Congress had appropriated instead of the $40,000 he felt it was worth.