Dr. Augustus S. Clark, who founded the Gillespie Normal School in 1902, also sought to improve health care for Cordele’s Black community. In 1925, a gift of $1000 helped establish a hospital, named the Charles Helm Hospital for the benefactor. At the time, the nearest Black hospital was located in Americus. Mrs. Eula Burke Johnson, a graduate of Gillespie Normal School, was the first nurse. The hospital was initially located on the second floor of one of the early school buildings and consisted of two beds and an operating room. Local doctors, white and African-American, served on the staff. The hospital also trained nurses.
The present structure, pictured above, was built in 1937. It had 25 beds and was named for William Gillespie, who donated funds for its construction. Nurse Johnson served as the hospital director and held weekly clinics for midwives. The hospital served the community until the integration of Crisp Regional Hospital in the late 1960s or early 1970s.
Gillespie-Selden Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
A reminder that the Americus Colored Hospital was the closest hospital to Cordele for African Americans. It opened in 1923 and operated until 1953 when a new hospital for whites was built under the Hill-Burton Act. A “Colored” wing for blacks was added to the back of the new hospital while funding for the Colored Hospital was terminated, forcing its closure. The black doctors who had built their practices there were not allowed to practice at the new hospital, forcing them to leave Americus to seek employment elsewhere. The impact of this was devastating to what was becoming a solid black middle-class in Americus. It contributed to a loss of generational wealth that continues to resonate within the black community to the present day.