MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — The Green building was once a dorm for thousands of patients on the campus of Central State Hospital, now crumbling apart.
Another site that is set to be torn down is the Jones building. That is the second out of three set to be torn down, according to Gov. Brian Kemp's executive order.
One Milledgeville man says the campus and the Jones building helped build his family's history.
However, the wind in the tall grass and the birds are the only sounds coming from the Jones building these days.
But you could hear babies crying here once.
“I was born right there in the hospital,” Marshall Berry said.
He’s lived in a home just a two-minute walk away from campus his whole life.
The Jones building, named after Central State Hospitals' fifth superintendent, Dr. Loderick Jones opened in 1929.
Marshall Berry says it was the area's only hospital until 1957 when the Baldwin County Hospital was built. So, before then, it’d be very likely that folks would’ve been born there.
The mental, the physical– all of that was attended here in the Jones building,” he said.
It's also the place that built the Berry family.
“My grandfather worked here as an attendant and also as a nurse assistant in which he participated in transporting patients from Central State back to their home county, and also bringing ones from Atlanta down to Milledgeville,” Berry explains. “He unfortunately was killed in a car accident in 1921 right outside from the state grounds. He was just a couple of yards from being back on campus from the hospital.”
However, Berry says that his grandmother didn’t let that stop their family from contributing to the hospital.
“My grandmother ran what was called the Smith-Berry hotel,” he explained. “She housed the relatives of patients that were in the Jones Building."
His mother, Julia Berry had a history with the hospital, too.
"Her real work was here as a nurse for 35 years,” Berry said.
Trained in the Jones building and graduating from nursing school there, his mother saw up to 250 patients a day.
“Helped the people in Hardwick, Baldwin County, Scottsboro, Coopers, Meriweather,” he said. “I would come down and she would take me to the different floors."
Berry followed in their footsteps.
“I was able to get a job, fortunate to be in it and I worked 32 years,” he said.
After five decades, the Jones building closed in 1977 too old for modern equipment. Its operations moved to the newer Culver-Kidd building and the Jones building decayed.
“It's in pretty bad shape,” Berry said. “There became certain individuals that did not want to place as much emphasis on the hospital. They felt like they could serve other areas. Eventually that got to be more every year. They closed just a few buildings to start. Then they increased to a moderate amount, and that led to a total closure [of the campus.”
In July, Kemp signed an order to tear down several buildings at Central State, including the Jones, Walker, and Green buildings.
“A place that cares for people's sickness and well being– it served to me a life’s purpose. We have lost a significant part of our history,” Berry said.
As well as his own history.
“It feels like a part of me is disappearing,” Berry said.
On Monday, we spoke with the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, who own the buildings.
They said their next step is to talk to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs' Historic Preservation division, as required by the Governor's order.
The historic preservation division can make a recommendation on whether the building should be demolished, but the decision is still up to the agency that owns it.
Berry says the Green building's space was re-purposed in the 90s as a Head Start for Baldwin County schools.
“I think that something like that could be applied to this building,” Berry said.
He says he has already written to the state about it.
If you'd like to learn more about the buildings and join the community surrounding the campus, the Friends of Central State Hospital Facebook group has almost 12,000 followers.