On Sept. 9, 1918, the Massachusetts National Guard, under the direction of Colonel William H. Brooks, erected a tent hospital on Corey Hill, completing the work in a single day.

Two hundred sick sailors were admitted to the new emergency hospital the next day, September 10. Meanwhile, Chelsea Naval Hospital, just north of Charlestown, quickly filled with influenza patients, two-dozen of whom had already died from pneumonia caused by severe cases of influenza. The hospital at the immigration station on Gallups Island in Boston Harbor, with its 200 beds, was made available for influenza patients.

The approximately 2,500 non-ill sailors at Commonwealth Pier were relocated to tent barracks at the muster field in Framingham as a means of removing them from harm’s way.