The Grady Hospital

Behold the cornerstone of one of the largest health systems in the world. Grady Health first opened the front doors of this building as The Grady Hospital on June 2nd, 1892 to serve the Atlanta public. It was the first of its kind in the city.

It sits on the corner of Jesse Hill Jr. and Coca-Cola Place, an old-school piece of architecture in the middle of a hospital campus that features (for the most part) building designs stacked together like different colored Legos.

Its towering old-world silhouette stands out in this modern environment. When you approach the three-story building, carved granite masterpieces emerge, framing the dark red brick, such as a remarkable “The Grady Hospital” frieze over the front entrance.

The popular story about the creation of Atlanta’s first public hospital relates how Henry Grady, the journalist, editor and newspaper owner promoted the building of a public hospital. It insinuates Grady was behind the creation of the hospital, which isn’t exactly true.

“It was built from a desire to benefit suffering humanity and an impulse of gratitude to do honor to Henry Grady’s memory, and it will do it,” said the Atlanta Constitution, when the hospital opened in 1892.

In the 1880’s many people promoted the idea of a public hospital in Atlanta. And this idea of a municipal hospital wasn’t original, for the general industry of care for the sick was moving towards these types of institutions. Grady and others were promoting a progressive concept.

Over the course of the entire 1800’s medical facilities were transformed from smaller institutions run by religious organizations designed to address specific problems (mostly helping an individual die) into large institutions financed by public funds dedicated to the recovery and healing of all classes.

While large hospitals in America were around from the 1700’s (Bellevue in New York was established in 1736, at first as a quarantine) it was the 1800’s that witnessed improved sanitation, use of statistics, professionalization of the medical field and other initiatives from individuals such as Florence Nightingale that shaped the modern doctors, nurses and massive hospitals we are familiar with today.

By the late 1800’s publicly-funded centers of care could be found in most American cities. Open to the poor and destitute (that were residents of Atlanta), Grady was the first of this kind of public institution in Atlanta.

There were other hospitals and “medical facilities” in Atlanta before old Grady was built in 1892, just not public. They were scattered in and around the city, with different names and specific purposes, such as the Hospital of the Atlanta Circle of the King’s Daughters and Sons (for incurable diseases) and the Catholic-run Saint Joseph’s Infirmary (Atlanta’s first true hospital open to everyone, which was founded in 1880).

These facilities relied on religious organizations and benevolent contributions from rich folks to operate.

According to records of the time, the movement that built The Grady Hospital grew out of the dissolution of one of these “medical facilities” in 1881. It was called the Atlanta Benevolent Home, organized on January 30th, 1874 by Mrs. William Tuller. It was successful in the 1870’s in serving the poor of Atlanta, but a new board in 1881 decided to sell it for the “greater good” and create a municipal hospital.

Throughout the 1880’s the Home’s board wrestled with lawsuits that prevented them from selling the deed. The idea gained steam. Editorials in the Constitution called for a public hospital. Progressives in the city called for its creation. It was a hot subject.

Henry Grady died in late December of 1889. In early 1890 the Atlanta Benevolent Home was finally sold and Atlanta City Councilman Joseph Hirsch introduced a resolution to establish a public hospital in Grady’s name. The City Council put up $30,000, which was combined with funds from other sources, such as those from the Benevolent Home. Hirsch was put in charge of raising additional cash.

By September 1890 four acres were purchased from Col. Lemuel P. Grant, the benefactor of Grant Park and the designer of the defenses of Atlanta during the Civil War.

Most records indicate the area was chosen because the Atlanta Medical College (now Emory) was a block south of the location. The College had been around since the mid 1850’s. But my research failed to indicate why it was placed near this medical college, as opposed to others in the area, such as the Southern Medical College (also now Emory).

Martin Moran, a retired doctor and author of Atlanta’s Living Legacy: A History of Grady Memorial Hospital & Its People, indicates the location was picked because it was on high ground, it was near the Atlanta Medical College and it was near one of Hurt’s trolley lines.

The architects were Gardner, Pyne and Gardner. The building was part of a large network of wards all connected by open-air corridors placed over the four acres purchased from Grant. Windows and porches were everywhere. This French “pavilion plan” for hospital design relied on air and ventilation to help reduce the mortality rate (Florence Nightingale loved this stuff).

The architects themselves called it Italianate, but others have since called it one of the only examples of the Richardson Romanesque Style in Atlanta. Which is it? That’s a good question for architecture nerds to dissect.

There was a large ceremony on December 23rd, 1890. The mayor gave a speech and then a Zouave band played as they put down the cornerstone. In May 1892 the building was dedicated. Then, on June 2nd, 1892, they formally opened and began accepting patients.

There was a steady stream of visitors that first day. The rules of admission by the hospital board were strict by today’s standards. The first “invalid” to apply was Henry Hughes who was turned away for not being an Atlanta resident and for having chronic diseases. Many others were turned away that first day for similar reasons.

There were four doctors, a matron (a wife of one of the doctors), 12 male and female nurses and 18 other employees, including cooks and engineers. Soon patients were being hauled in by a horse-drawn ambulance with rubber wheels. There was no tobacco or alcohol allowed in the hospital.

The Grady Hospital of 1892 had wards divided by sex and race; patients that could pay for treatment were given their own private rooms. In total the hospital provided 110 beds and was a cutting edge facility.

There was an operating room bathed by natural light from huge windows with a section for students to observes doctors in action (they had to pay $5 to get in). The first-floor bow window on the north side marks the location of this original operating room.

As the hospital grew after 1900, and Jim Crow took hold, they divided blacks and whites further beyond just wards by creating/providing separate hospital structures.

I won’t get into the entire history of Grady Health, but by 1912 they had purchased the entire block. In that year they built a new hospital structure south of The Grady Hospital of 1892. The new building became known as Butler Hall (it has since been torn down).

Butler Hall was for whites. They moved African Americans into the old Atlanta Medical College building, which is now demolished. This segregation continued for much of the hospital’s subsequent history, including a massive, and racially separate, 1,000-bed facility built in the mid-1950’s which became known as The Gradys.

During the last century The Grady Hospital building of 1892 became known as Georgia Hall. It was designated a Landmark Building on October 23rd, 1989. Both the bells in the tower and the operating room were removed during renovations and additions.

According to Grady spokesperson Denise Simpson, the interior is unrecognizable from the original design and layout. It’s more 1980’s office space than 1890’s medical facility. Simpson also indicates the tower in extremely hard to access. The building is occupied by Grady’s Human Resources department.

Did You Know? The building is three stories tall, but the tower is five stories tall.
Did You Know? Grady purchased its first motorized ambulance from the White Motor Company in 1911.
Did You Know? Grady opened a Children’s Ward in 1897 for white children only.
Did You Know? At first Grady was controlled by a Board of Trustees and was funded by both the city of Atlanta and private donations. Today the counties that use Grady facilities throughout the metropolitan area all assume a portion of paying for Grady Health.
Did You Know? The first nursing school in Georgia, the Grady Hospital Training School for Nurses, was chartered on March 25th, 1898.