GUIDED TOURS OF THE GROUNDS AND WOOD NATIONAL CEMETERY
The popular Cemetery-by-Lantern tours are offered each year during Reclaiming Our Heritage. This year the ticketed tours will take place on Saturday evening, June 2. Limited online ticket sales will be announced in early April.

Voices of Wood National Cemetery, a theater-style presentation, will take place in Lake Wheeler Pavilion on Saturday evening, June 2, with a unique collection of veteran stories. Tickets will go on sale in early April.

In addition, narrated daytime cemetery tours and guided tours of the grounds will be available by ticket on Saturday, June 2, and Sunday, June 3. Limited online tickets will be available in early April.

Members of Friends of Reclaiming Our Heritage receive advance notice of all pre-event sales. The remainder of the tickets will go on sale at 9 a.m. on Saturday, June 2, at the Friends of Reclaiming Our Heritage tent.

In the summer of 2011, the Northwestern Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, commonly known as the Milwaukee Soldiers' Home, was one of four historic VA Medical Centers designated National Historic Landmarks.

Established by Congress in 1865 and developed as a network of eleven branches across the country, the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS) established a policy of veteran’s benefits that directly influenced the development of a national system for veteran’s health care in the United States. The NHDVS was a notable departure from the previous focus on care for professional soldiers and officially set forth the concern and commitment of the federal government for the well-being of the civilian soldier. The architecture and landscape architecture of the NHDVS branches reflects development of the institution, and the goal of providing residences and care to war veterans. The highly visible NHDVS branches reminded citizens of the federal government’s support of veterans and helped forge a link between the public and the government. In 1930, the NHDVS was absorbed into the newly created Veterans Administration. With the transition, the practice of establishing and developing individual branches with unique architecture and landscapes ended as these past policies gave way to standardization. NHDVS, Julin

Check back from time to time as we add archival images, scholarly research, helpful links and resources, and more!

This site is offered as a service to the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center, but is operated and funded independently by the West Side Soldiers Aid Society, Inc. Check back from time to time as we add archival images, scholarly research, helpful links and resources, and more!

Learn more about the mission and service of the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Visit the website or "like" the VA  facebook page.

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