One of the most memorable haunted places in Jones County was the South Mississippi Charity Hospital, also known as the Old Charity Hospital.
The hospital was located at the end of 1st Avenue in Laurel, opened in January 1917, and was known as the South Mississippi State Hospital. The name changed in later years to the South Mississippi Charity Hospital.
This hospital housed 125 beds and was a medical center for the indigent. In 1919 a school of nursing for women, with the first graduate being Mae Payne. She graduated in 1921. There were more than 700 nurses who successfully graduated from the school.
One story from the hauntings of the Hospital is about Emma Windham. She attended the nursing school and continued to work for the hospital. Supposedly, Emma accidentally gave a young girl too much anesthetic, and the child died. Emma was so overwrought that she reportedly killed herself. Emma's obituary, located in the Laurel Daily Leader, December 19, 1922, page 6, states she died after a short illness at 11:00 o'clock. Her services were held from the Nurse's Home on Tuesday morning, and interment was at Bunker Hill Church.
This hospital has always been a mystery to me. Closing in 1989, this site of the once beautiful hospital has always fascinated me. Did you know there was a park located at the site at one time? J. M. Lindsey was the planner of every detail of the park and financed everything himself. The location is said to be two miles north of town, between the M. J. & K. C. right of way and the road extension of Main Street, just south of the J. M. Lindsey truck farm. The headline on the front pages of the Laurel Ledger, Thursday, April 22, 1909, states Artificial Lake Open to Public. The park featured boating, bathing, swimming, a ballpark, music, and picnic areas.
I was not able to locate information on the exact closing date of the park.
The hospital was closed in 1989. This once majestic building was burned to a mere shell of itself on May 19, 2004. According to the fire chief at that time, the insides of the building were engulfed in an eerie glow of flames.
A historical marker was placed by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in September 2011.
I would like to hear your stories of the old hospital. Can you just imagine the stories the walls could tell if they could talk (and were still standing)?
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