Clara Barton's Missing Soldiers Office[edit]
In 1869, Clara Barton closed the Missing Soldiers Office and headed to Europe.[24] The third floor of her old boardinghouse was boarded up in 1913, and the site forgotten. The site was "lost" in part because the city realigned its addressing system in the 1870s. The boardinghouse became 437 ½ Seventh Street Northwest (formerly 488-1/2 Seventh Street West).
In 1997, General Services Administration carpenter Richard Lyons was hired to clear out the building for its demolition. He found a treasure trove of Clara Barton items in the attic, including signs, clothing, Civil War soldier's socks, an army tent, Civil War-era newspapers, and many documents relating to the Office of Missing Soldiers.[25] This discovery led to the NPS saving the building from demolition. It took years, however, for the site to be restored.[26] The Clara Barton's Missing Soldiers Office Museum, run by the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, opened in 2015.