Talk:Naval Hospital Boston Historic District

Merge with Chelsea Naval Hospital?

Although it's not clear that the boundaries of the Chelsea Naval Hospital are exactly contiguous with the Naval Hospital Boston Historic District, it's an excellent bet that all of the historic buildings that were part of Chelsea Naval Hospital are in the Historic District (The two names are for the same institution, which has always been physically in Chelsea, MA, but more recently administratively part of the Boston Navy Yard. It has had three names, see the article) Since the hospital as an institution no longer exists, the discussion of its history can easily take place under either name, with no reason to have two articles.

I note also, according to the NPS web site cited in the article, that it has never been "Chelsea Naval Hospital". The surviving article name should therefore probably be the final name of the institution, which was "Naval Hospital Boston". Thoughts? . . . . Jim . . . . Jameslwoodward (talk • contribs) 18:46, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I think they should be merged, but don't know exactly what name the article should take. I was surprised that the Chelsea Naval Hospital article was even created, especially since "Chelsea Naval Hospital was never the official name". Swampyank (talk) 19:13, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

No because one is a hospital and one is a district. Since they cover different subjects, they should remain separate. They also have different histories. In the end, it could even be spilt in the future because some editor will think of the same thing. Granted, I usually split articles that would be merged, but I still am going from a neutral point of view. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 21:07, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

And besides, when you Google the two, Chelsea comes up with more hits. Some of this is the Wiki link over other sites, but it still contains more hits. I actually used other government sites when determining the names. Also, check out this. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 21:15, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I thought this was a no-brainer, so I wasn't quite as clear as I might have been. We need an article (or two) about the Naval Hospital located in Chelsea for two reasons:

• It was a notable place in its own right
• It is now a Historic District

The question is whether it should be one article or two, and then, if it's one, what name to use. Fundamentally the two would be about the same place. Arguably, the article about the hospital should have nothing before 1836 or after 1974, but that's only two or three sentences out of an otherwise identical history of the hospital. It might be different if the site was otherwise notable either before or after its use as a hospital, but it was a cow pasture before and condominiums after, neither particularly notable, so I don't see why we need two almost identical articles here. I also note that all of the Category:Forts in Massachusetts that are also NRHP sites are one article.

Now for the name. My Google results are very different from User:Ktr101. Searching, with quotes in each case, I get:

• "Naval Hospital at Charlestown (Chelsea Site)" (the first official name) -- 2 hits
• "Naval Hospital Chelsea" (the second official name) -- 128,000 hits
• "Naval Hospital Boston" (the third official name) -- 450,000 hits
• "Chelsea Naval Hospital" (never an official name according to the NPS) -- 167,000 hits

I'm not sure I put much stock in Google hits to determine article names, but this supports my suggestion that it be titled Naval Hospital Boston.. . . . Jim . . . . Jameslwoodward (talk • contribs) 14:35, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

@Jameslwoodward: I don't know if it helps now, but I just moved it as I apparently forgot to check up on this six years ago. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 07:34, 31 January 2016 (UTC)