Abandoned hospital in South Carolina

Good Samaritan - Waverly Hospital, Columbia South Carolina

Date added: March 04, 2023 Categories: South Carolina Hospital

During its operation from 1952 to 1973, Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital served as an alternative institution for black residents in Columbia, South Carolina and was the culmination of a string of local hospitals and clinics built for the African American community. The hospital was the only training facility for black nurses in Columbia, and was built as a state-of-the-art medical facility.

During the Jim Crow era in Columbia, the middle class, professional population of the historically-black Waverly residential district worked to develop for themselves what the city and county refused to provide. The Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital is an example of the alternative spaces African Americans built in the face of discrimination at Columbia's hospitals. The hospital's construction represents the result of a historical tradition among Columbia's black community and philanthropic efforts to establish modern, independent health care facilities.

Early health care in the black community was limited to the urban areas of the state. Often, small black hospitals and nurses' training schools were the only places blacks could receive medical care. In the early 1900s, Columbia only had three black physicians. The first African American hospital in Columbia was opened in 1901 by Dr. Matilda Evans. Evans opened the Taylor Lane Hospital in her home until she was able to finance the acquisition of a separate building for the hospital. Evans also trained nurses and partnered with white doctors who donated their services to the hospital. Funding for the Taylor Lane Hospital came from philanthropic northerners and business owners, as most patients were unable to pay for their treatments. The Taylor Lane Hospital burned in 1914.

Dr. William Rhodes and his wife Lillian Rhodes opened the Good Samaritan Hospital in 1910. This hospital was located at 1508 Gregg Street. Benedict College also opened a hospital on its campus in 1920 to serve its students and employees. The Benedict Hospital merged with Waverly Hospital, which was founded by Dr. Norman A. Jenkins and his four brothers. At the time of the merger in 1926, Waverly Hospital was located in the Lysander D. Childs house on the corner of Hampton and Pine Streets. Waverly Hospital also held a nurses training school.

The black hospitals in Columbia relied on donations of money, time, and materials to treat the community. Several large endowments, including the Julius Rosenwald Fund, were interested in improving the health care of blacks in Columbia. The Duke Endowment, founded by James Buchanan Duke of North Carolina, conducted a survey of African American healthcare facilities in Columbia in the 1930s. The survey confirmed that a modern facility was needed and neither the Good Samaritan Hospital nor the Waverly Hospital had the resources to provide modern health care. The Duke Endowment, along with the Rosenwald Fund (more well-known as the provider of grants to construct black schools), offered to fund construction of a new hospital for African Americans in Columbia. The Endowment required that the Good Samaritan and Waverly hospitals merge to avoid splitting the community and to better benefit black doctors and patients. The endowment grant was instead given to the creation of a segregated wing at the white Columbia General Hospital because of the intense rivalry between the two black hospitals.

The new segregated building of Columbia General Hospital opened on Harden Street in the late 1930s, but not without considerable opposition from the black community. Black doctors at Columbia General were restricted to private cases, while white interns and doctors treated charity cases. Ninety percent of the black patients at Columbia General, however, were charity patients, and the black doctors were upset at the imposed limits on their practice. A group of four hundred protestors voiced their concerns that the hospital was too close to the railroad tracks, that there was no nurse training facility, and that black doctors were not allowed to practice freely. The protestors also argued that the project funding had only been approved because adequate facilities had been promised. They demanded a "proper hospital" and threatened to ask the Duke Foundation to withdraw their funding if the community's request was not granted.

On these common grounds, Good Samaritan and Waverly Hospitals merged into a single bi-racial board of trustees in 1938. The newly created Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital was incorporated as a non-profit organization dedicated to providing health care and training for nurses, but a new facility was still desperately needed. Unfortunately, by this time the Duke Endowment had refused its earlier offer to fund two-thirds of the cost of a modern hospital.

Instead, the funding would have to come from the black community. Leading the drive that started in 1944 was Modjeska Monteith Simkins, a prominent activist in the local African American community and civil rights supporter. Most of the early funding for a new building consisted of small, individual donations because of the committee's door to door campaign that aimed to visit "every Negro family" in Columbia to ask for contributions. This campaign was supplemented with other fundraising events such as pageants and a boxing match. By 1950, the committee had raised nearly $100,000 toward the new hospital, hired G.C. Shockley Construction Company as general contractor, and laid the cornerstone for the new building on March 5.

Following this massive effort, the Duke Foundation agreed to donate $100,000 for the building's construction and the purchase of equipment. Even so, the fundraising committee was still short on the necessary money and applied for funding from the Hospital Advisory Council of the South Carolina State Board of Health. Board member Dr. Carr McFall, an African American physician, was instrumental in securing funds for the hospital. Following his appointment to the board, the previously unresponsive council adopted more favorable policy towards the need of the black population, and sometimes even went as far as to show preferential treatment to African Americans. As a result of McFall's efforts, Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital was able to secure $130,000 under the federal Hospital Survey and Construction Law (Hill-Burton Act), funds that typically were granted for construction of racially integrated hospitals or separate, segregated wings. Because of the Hospital Advisory Council's justification that the new hospital would alleviate the shortage of African American beds in Columbia, Good Samaritan- Waverly Hospital was one of only four all-black hospitals to receive Hill-Burton Act funds.

The new building opened as a licensed hospital and nurse training facility in September of 1952, serving as a much needed medical facility as well as Columbia's first purpose-built hospital for blacks. The new facility had a pharmacy, laboratory, X-ray room, staff dining room, two operating rooms, and fifty beds. As one community member stated, "The hospital, because of its place in the community, had a very special place in the heart of the black community. We saw it as a symbol of what we had accomplished together."

Unfortunately, within just a decade of its opening, Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital was struggling under massive debt. The hospital routinely served as an overflow facility for charity patients from Columbia General and other hospitals in the surrounding counties, but was often forced to absorb the cost as the local governments failed to reimburse the hospital for treatment. As a result, there was not money to adequately maintain the facility or modernize its equipment. In the late 1960s, the hospital was evaluated by the McPherson Company and a major renovation project with a substantial addition was proposed to the board of trustees. A lack of funds prohibited the completion of the project.

Ironically, the biggest challenge to Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital was the Civil Rights Act and the integration of Columbia's hospital facilities. Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital struggled to attract white patients to keep its eligibility for Medicare funding. The first white patient of the hospital was admitted in 1966 and the first white baby was born at Good Samaritan in 1969. In 1972, the county constructed the integrated Richland County Memorial Hospital, and neither Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital nor Columbia General Hospital could compete. In August of 1973, Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital was forced to close its doors. The building was left abandoned until 1987, when nearby Allen University bought the property with the intent of building a physical education facility. The building has stood vacant since then, but still stands as a reminder of the accomplishment of the African American community in the face of the inequality of segregation. The university is now planning to rehabilitate the building as a multi-purpose facility to service the Waverly neighborhood and the Allen University community. The plan includes a health center for Allen students, professional offices, and space for programs that serve micro-businesses, youth, and senior citizens. Once completed, the Good Samaritan- Waverly Hospital would once again hold a central place in the Waverly community, reminiscent of its historic function.

Building Description

Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital is located on the corner of Hampton and Pine streets in the heart of the Waverly community in downtown Columbia, South Carolina. The hospital was in operation from September 1952 until August 1973 and serviced the African American population of the city and the seven surrounding counties. The building also operated as a nurse's training school for the area. Although a substantial addition was proposed in the late 1960s, the hospital was never renovated. The building has remained vacant since its closing in 1973 and, despite natural signs of aging, still retains its historic appearance.

An example of modern architecture, the two-story hospital has a decidedly horizontal orientation. The 19,200-square-foot building has a rear-facing, L-shaped plan with load-bearing brick masonry in a common bond. The building is supported by a brick wall foundation and features a steel frame that is protected by plaster fireproofing. The saw-tooth, soldier course water table visually separated the main level from the above-ground basement.

An offset grand entry porch dominates the asymmetrical facade. The pavilion-style central entrance extends slightly from the building and is covered by a simple overhang. A cement staircase leads up to the double leaf doors flanked with transom and sidelights. Typical of the period are the glass block windows on either side of the entrance. Adding to the asymmetrical style are the assorted rectangular window openings that are situated unevenly over the entire facade. Only two metal-framed windows remain in the building.

The flat roof and simple ornamentation reinforces the horizontal feeling of the building. There is a streamlined coping around the entire building, including the roof stairwell room and chimney. The Hampton Street facade, minus the entry projection is decorated with two additional two cast stone horizontal bands below the coping. These bands wrap only slightly onto the Pine Street [west] and east elevations. Slight staining of these architectural details has occurred with age.

On the east side of the building is a covered loading dock with a stairway on the front side and a ramp on the back. This side entrance was used for transporting emergency patients from the ambulance into the hospital. The eastern rear of the building hosts an additional loading dock with a concrete ramp leading to a covered basement entrance. On the west side is another covered stairway and side entrance that opens to both the main floor and basement.

A central hallway runs through all three levels of the building. Each interior room varies in size and layout depending on the historic function of the room. The basement floor held the kitchen, laundry, and records rooms. The records rooms are small, windowless rooms, while the kitchen has several window openings to provide light and air. The first and second floors have larger rooms that served as wards for patients. The nurses' station is located on the first floor near the main entrance to the building. The nurses' station has a large interior window overlooking the hallway and adjacent wards. The obstetrics wing, including the labor room, the delivery room, and the nursery, is located on the second floor. Two operating rooms with tile walls and floors are located in the rear wing of the second floor. The doctors' lounge is located on the second floor and is the only room with an interior brick fireplace. The nurses' lounge is located across the hall from the doctors' lounge. The building has two interior stairwells at opposite ends and an elevator shaft that services all three levels.

The building has not been significantly altered since the time it was opened in 1952. In 1956, air conditioning was added to the operating and delivery rooms. In 1970, air conditioning was added to the other wings and the building was rewired." The plaster finish coat on the walls and ceilings is no longer intact, and only two windows remain in the building. Other than these alterations, the interior retains its historic appearance. The exterior has undergone no alterations since 1952. The glass block windows have suffered some damage from vandalism.

A low stone wall runs along the north and west sides of the property. The granite block fence was built by or before ca. 1900 to surround the large Lysander D. Childs house, in which the first Waverly Hospital operated from its founding until 1952. Dr. Norman A. Jenkins, Waverly Hospital's founder, built a house ca. 1920 at the corner of Hampton and Pine streets. The Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital building was built on what was once the large west side yard of the Jenkins House.