The Bulloch County Hospital, 1937-2000

The Bulloch County Hospital, 1937-2000. Property donated by Hinton Booth Esq., Architect Walter Aldred. Between 1908 and 1936 the medical needs of Bulloch County's citizens were served by the Statesboro Sanitarium, but it closed in 1927 when community funding failed. It reopened a year later, still with inadequate funding. The Sanitarium continued for eight more years., In 1934 through the joint efforts of physicians and Mayor and City Council, a 40-bed hospital facility was planned at a cost of $50,000, to be built on donated land at East Grady and Donehoo St. The final cost was $84,000, but with a capacity of 50 beds. The hospital began serving patients in December, 1936, with the official opening on July 1, 1937. The hospital was managed by an appointed citizens Hospital Authority., The hospital was a two-toned brick structure with 3 stories, in the Federal style, featuring rigid symmetry, rounded arches and a decorative, windowed cupola centered on the peaked roof., Four Ionic columns braced the central portico and triangular gable, which framed a single round window. Inset marble ribboning divided the floors beneath each set of windows. The main door was decorated with flat pilasters flanking the sides, rosettes in the corners, and an elliptical fan transom pediment., Over the next 50 years, the hospital expanded and modernized to address the rising population. Though the use of red brick was continued throughout, the additional structures were modern designs, such as the round nursing unit added of 1966. The name was officially changed to Bulloch Memorial Hospital in 1976., The hospital grew into a comprehensive medical facility of 158 beds, with 550 employees, 35 departments, and 40 physicians. Due to rising costs the facility was sold in 1995 to HMA. In early 2000 it was decided that a new facility was needed and the original building was demolished in July of 2003. Ogeechee Area Hospice occupied this site in 2005. , Supported by the Jack N. and Addie D. Averitt Foundation..