Central State Mental Hospital, previously called the Georgia State Sanitarium or Milledgeville State Hospital along with other names that I prefer not to revisit, first opened its door in 1842. Eventually the hospital took over 2000 acres and had over 200 buildings scattered on the property, and was at one time the largest mental hospital in the world. That was around 1966 or so.
In contrast to the grandeur of many buildings, the hospital grounds were the site of horrific tragedies – forced sterilization, federal investigations of cruelty, overcrowding with 12000 patients to less than 100 staff, mysterious deaths and the list goes on. And on. And on. It’s all too much to cover here so I’ve included a few resources at the end of the post…
The majority of the buildings have been abandoned for years and have now fallen prey to neglect and vandalism. I remember many a rurexing friend who considered C(M)SH to be the pinnacle of adventuring…despite the danger of trespass. It’s been less than a decade since fencing went up, police patrols began in earnest (seriously, they will arrest you so don’t go where you’re not supposed to!) and a lot of the hospital equipment was removed from the interiors. You could still find electroshock therapy items, gurneys and other medical implements inside the buildings up until just a few years ago. During my most recent trip you could see from outside the windows looking in that there were computers on desks and paperwork tossed about on the floor!
The hospital has only recently closed the last remaining buildings on the property as the patient numbers dwindled to just a few dozen. The rest of the structures are following in the footsteps of the others and are falling quickly into decay. Many are slated to be demolished despite of calls for preservation.
See it before it’s gone. I’m absolutely gobsmacked every single time I visit because it truly is like a city that fell to ruin. Offices with phones still connected. Homes with photos still on the mantle. Cars rusting in driveways. It’s wild that they just up and left everything.
But surprisingly you’ll find that Cedar Lane Cemetery, well what’s the designated larger cemetery because with the hospital’s history I just know that there are many graves yet to be discovered, has been restored and is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
There are only around 2,000 cast-iron markers to commemorate over 25,000 (known) patients that are documented as buried on the hospital grounds. Note: most were not buried here but were ‘relocated’ during an expansion. Each markers bears a number instead of a name since that’s how they used to identify individuals in order to keep anonymity during their stay. Sadly, at one time all of these markers were discarded into nearby woods because they impeded the groundskeepers from mowing the area. Once the restoration began and the markers were re-discovered, they were placed here in orderly rows.
There are other graves in the cemetery marked with stone but they’re scattered about and in poor condition. But if you look around you’ll notice that angels are everywhere – a gold figure on the fence, in the form of small ceramic grave goods and a human sized bronze angel that was placed nearby during the restoration to act as a guardian for those buried here. And that’s an indicator that this cemetery, once very much forgotten and neglected like the buildings nearby, is now safe(r) under the watchful eye of the historic community…
Start with this detailed online exhibit: https://georgialibraries.omeka.net/s/central-state-hospital/page/introduction
An older article with some very interesting photos of the abandoned interiors: https://www.atlantamagazine.com/great-reads/asylum-inside-central-state-hospital-worlds-largest-mental-institution/
BBC coverage from a few years back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq6Nu9rxB1k
