Forrest General Hospital

In 1901 the South Mississippi Infirmary was organized, located on Plum St.. That building burned twice in the next couple years so in 1905 they moved to Walnut St. near the intersection with Buschman St..

On July 15, 1952 it admitted its first patient. The hospital had 70 staff and 31 doctors. (source: History of Forrest County, p 99)

According to the website (http://www.forrestgeneral.com/story/history.php) they now have 537 beds and over 2800 employees.

http://hburgwiki.rednek.net/images/IMG_1294.jpg

Here's an article from opening day: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/braddabug/images/doc/fgh.jpg


 * The million dollar Forrest County General Hospital opens for business at 8 a. m. Wednesday.
 * Hospital officials said today that one medical patient already has made arrangements to enter the hospital Wednesday morning.
 * Two surgical patients are scheduled to be admitted Wednesday afternoon in preparation for the first operations in the hispital Thursday morning.
 * Barring an emergency operation of some type Wednesday, the ultra-modern surgical facilities will be used for the first time on Thursday.
 * Of special interest in connection with the opening is the "stork derby," with a number of prizes being offered for the first baby born at the hospital. Only normal births are eligible.
 * The prizes at stake are:
 * An imported handmade Christening set from Belks; enough wall paper with border for a complete room and a pint of enable for repainting baby furniture from Sherwin-Williams; a hooded bassinette from J. C. Penny; baby crib and mattres plus $50 credit on a new refrigerator from Modern Appliance and Furniture Co.; pair of metal pin-up lamps for baby's room and a $50 certificate on purchase of an automatic washer from Kirkwood's; two dozen diapers from Sears Roebuck; baby bath from Sackler Furniture Co.; and a pair of infant's shoes from Toxey's.
 * Final preparations for opening of the hospital were being made today, under the supervision of Reagan Long, hospital director, and Mrs. Sidney Barron, director of nursing.
 * To begin with, only the second and third floors of the hospital will be put into operation. This makes about 50 of the hospital's 100 beds available.
 * The plan is to add personnel to man other facilities as patronage increases and makes it necessary. At the present time there about 50 people employed at the hospital.
 * The new structure, built with a combination of county, state and federal funds, was dedicated last Friday and an estimated 3500 people toured the building during open house hours held over the weekend.
 * The hospital was closed Monday and today while personnel completed preparations for the opening.

(source: Hattiesburg American, July 15, 1952 (btw, the article is still copyrighted; I'm going to say it's fair use to reprint the article here, but we can't use it in the doc without permission.))

We've got to get that old picture from 1952! A new one from 2005 wouldn't hurt either. The one above is pretty bad, although it wouldn't have the fun snowman. I wish we had a picture from before they started all that new construction. You could see the original building from the street but now the new construction had enveloped it. -- Brad