The Last Sanitorium Traditional Cache
BEENTHERE309: This one is gone.
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(micro)
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A magnetic micro hidden down the road from a significant spot in the history of North Carolina medicine.
In 1908, the North Carolina State Sanatorium became the first state institution for the treatment of tuberculosis patients. Several private institutions, or resorts, were operating in western North Carolina before that time but treatment was limited to those who could afford it. Dr. J. E. Brooks refused to accept that North Carolina citizens infected with the lung disease had no other option than to stay home and wait to die. As a state legislator in 1907, Brooks secured an appropriation of $15,000 to purchase land and build a sanatorium, and an additional $5,000 for maintenance.
The site chosen for the sanatorium is in present-day Hoke County between Aberdeen and Raeford. The fear of spreading the infection led to its construction some distance from the nearest town. The sanatorium opened on April 4, 1908, with capacity for thirty-two patients. A division for African Americans was established in 1923, a division for prisoners in 1925, and a division for children in 1927. Eventually the sanatorium housed 650 beds and included two separate nursing schools - one white and one colored. All North Carolina citizens unable to go to a private specialist could attend the sanatorium’s diagnostic clinic.
The small community where the first state sanatorium was located bore the name Sanitorium until 1948. At that time, it was renamed McCain in honor of Dr. Paul P. McCain who had served as superintendent and medical director from 1924 to 1946. In 1973, the State Sanatorium became McCain Hospital. With the increasingly low incidence of tuberculosis, the hospital was transferred to the Division of Prisons in October 1983. At that time, it was one of the last remaining hospitals in the United States that was exclusively devoted to tuberculosis treatment.
From 1983 until 2010, McCain hospital was owned and run by the NC Department of Corrections, serving prisoners from all over the state. In 2010, the prison health system was centralized in a cost-cutting measure and McCain was finally closed.
As a final note, if you have a twisted imagination like mine, a building that served TB patients for 75 years and prisoners for 27 years can only be one thing.....haunted! Like, really, really haunted. It seems you would be right. The story is that the prison employees who look over the now empty building NEVER go up to the third floor because of the things - cold spots, murmuring voices, children's laughter, 'bad feelings' - that occur there. Keep in mind that these are PRISON GUARDS....not easily frightened, except by what over 100 years of patients have left behind, and what may possibly remain.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Oynpx ba juvgr
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