“As if,” Belknap exclaimed, “you could pick a portable house from a tree like a lemon!” In a letter to the Ambassador, Belknap gives some interesting details about the hospital.
“The hospital referred to was one that the Queen desired to be built at Villaggio Regina Elena. Like the hotel, it began as a combination of several standard cottages, but, as Mr. Elliott was never content with a makeshift when he could improve upon it, a plan was ultimately evolved which embodied all of her Majesty’s ideas, and at the same time made the most of the ground area that would be available to cover. The Queen had stipulated for kitchen, laundry and servants to be in a building separate from the hospital proper, and for a detached house to be available close at hand. Mr. Elliott’s plan was of a large, main building, forty by sixty feet, containing three wards, dining-room and pantry, bath, office, dispensary, and linen closet, with a wing thrown out on the north containing operating-room, sterilizing-room, and emergency ward, and another wing on the south for doctors’ rooms and bath, and nurses’ rooms and bath. In the rear were to be kitchen, laundry and dining-room, with servants’ sleeping-rooms and storeroom in a semi-detached building in one corner, and, symmetrically placed in the opposite corner, a small isolated building for a contagious ward. With the hospital, also, our part was at first limited to the contractor work, her Majesty sending an engineer down to arrange for plumbing, drainage, lighting and furnishing; but later we arranged for, and carried through, the plastering and tiled flooring.
“In submitting the two floor plans of the hotel, it is requested that the Ambassador take such steps as may be necessary for obtaining her Majesty’s sanction for the use of her name for the hotel.
“It is only intended to build a two-story structure, having about eighty-four rooms available for guests, and a dining-room and its accessories amply large for about two hundred at one time.
“Since we have been at work about the hotel site, several persons have approached me about undertaking to manage the hotel when completed. My reply has been that I should refer all such questions to the Ambassador, as I did not feel myself in a position to decide any matter not connected strictly with the construction. The interest in the hotel is spreading.”
The sixth of April was a red-letter day. In the morning the King came to the Camp; in the afternoon Mr. Roosevelt and the Ambassador made their long expected visit, and in the evening J. was summoned on board the Italian man-of-war, to show his plans of the hospital to the Queen.
Extract from Mr. Elliott’s Diary
“The Camp, Messina, April 7.
“Yesterday the King arrived unexpectedly at the Camp at 9 A.M. Buchanan, Brofferio and I accompanied him and his staff through the village. They came into my small office. I showed the King my designs for the hospital and the cottages we are to build at Villaggio Regina Elena, a model village the Queen has built on the other side of Messina. He liked the plans very much. When I spoke of the great disaster the King said that the American duty put on lemons was almost as great a disaster for Sicily as the earthquake. Though, he added, ‘America is perfectly right.’ At 7 P.M. I was taken on board the ‘Umberto I’ by the steam pinnace of the ‘Dandolo.’ I was received by the Queen, a most fascinating lady. She thanked me many times, till I felt quite embarrassed. She was really very enthusiastic about the plans for the hospital and the cottages. The subject of the allotment of the houses came
