The army originally established Camp Lowell in 1866 on the outskirts of Tucson, then moved the post in 1873 to a site 7 miles northeast because of unsanitary conditions; designated Fort Lowell in 1879, it had four companies of cavalry and infantry, stood as one of 12 large military posts in Arizona Territory during the last quarter of the 19th century in the final years of the Apache Wars, and closed in 1891. Its post hospital had 13 rooms and accommodated 16 beds in a building 60 feet wide and 120 feet long, with an isolation ward, surgeon's office, dispensary, storerooms, wash room, morgue, and quarters for enlisted men on the hospital staff. Fireplaces heated the building in winter, while in summer long hallways encouraged breezes and shutters, porches, and cottonwood trees provided shade. By the 1880s, a tin roof reduced leaks, plaster and white paint adorned the walls, wood floors replaced dirt, and a 20-by-78-foot kitchen building stood behind the hospital to the east.