HAWKINSVILLE, Ga. — In the early 1930s, Robert Jenks Taylor gave $100,000 to the people of Pulaski County to build their first hospital. Up until then, they didn't have one.
There is a black-and-white photo that shows opening day. People are dressed in their finest and an old-fashioned bullhorn was the sound system.
Marree Cleghorn is the director of the Hawkinsville-Pulaski Chamber of Commerce.
"[There's] lots of pride in that photo, you can tell even in black-and-white... you can see people were so proud," said Cleghorn.
For 39 years, folks had babies, endured surgeries, and healed in the Georgian Revival-style brick building.
"In 1976, they started construction on the new Taylor Regional Hospital," recalled Cleghorn.
It made the old one extinct; a hospital without a heartbeat. The roof started to leak, and dust and muck became permanent tenants.
"It was an eyesore, I guess you would say. We had to put up some fencing around it just to keep people out," said Cleghorn.
At one point, they embraced the decrepit site and let folks come in for ghost tours.
"Some people said they heard bumps and ticks and things," she said.
Today, it all looks brand new. Taylor Village found a new life for the building -- apartments. In 2020 they received the Excellence in Rehabilitation award for preserving everything they could salvage.
They kept the arch in the main lobby, the brick floor in the hallway, and even a decorative glass window. Someone now lounges in a place where life and death hung in the balance.
"They restored it back to that original teal tile and it is now an apartment, so someone lives in there where they used to do surgery," said Cleghorn.
It's no longer an eyesore. It's back to providing for people and now it's even got a bit of folklore swirling around the scenery.
"I have had people call and ask, 'What happened to the hospital? It looks better. What's in there? What's been going on?' so people are still interested in it, especially people who are from the community and maybe left and came back to visit," said Cleghorn.
You can go by and see the outside of the building on Commerce Street, but it is a locked building, so you can't get inside.