Cornerstone/Auditorium Building

Cornerstone/Auditorium Building. . The Georgia Lunatic Asylum (now Central State Hospital) “was the fifth oldest institution exclusively for the insane in the South and the fourteenth in the nation” (Dr. Peter G. Cranford). It took care of the afflicted paupers in Georgia as well as others from Georgia and elsewhere who could pay $100/year to cover clothing, room-and-board and medical care. The female convalescent building was erected in 1883. The building once mirrored the Walker Building, the building directly across the Pecan Grove from this building. The back portion of the building was torn down and a modern auditorium erected in 1949. The front portion was saved because it has a cornerstone with the hospital's original name of the Georgia Lunatic Asylum. The auditorium is still used for dances, meetings, nursing school graduations, and staff training and can also be rented for community events., Examples of why you would be committed to the hospital: . 22-year-old white female; a pay patient who had been mentally ill for 8 years; indecent and immodest; ulcerated legs and other somewhat minor complaints; some improvement , . 23-year-old female; “lunatic and epíleptic” whose epileptic convulsions seemed to follow disappointment in love; violent; hostile; auditory and visual hallucinations, [Caption] Female convalescent building, 1908 . This historical marker was erected by Central State Hospital Redevelopment Authority. It is in Milledgeville in Baldwin County Georgia