Tucked away on the Jackson Road (now Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.) between downtown Vicksburg and the Vicksburg National Military Park stands a huge abandoned hulk that today emanates despair but was for over a century a place of hope for poor citizens of Mississippi in need of medical attention.
Kuhn State Hospital started life as Vicksburg’s City Hospital back in 1832, in response to a smallpox outbreak. It took its place at this location, then a suburban estate with “a substantial house” in 1847. Run by Dr. George K. Birchett, and later his son, grandson, and great-grandson, the hospital served wounded during the Civil War and suffered the deaths of 16 doctors and 6 Catholic Sisters of Mercy during the Yellow Fever of 1878.
The state took over the operation of the hospital in 1871, and the institution was re-named the State Charity Hospital at Vicksburg. Other state-run charity hospitals (an interesting fact given the recent health care debate) were at Jackson, Laurel, Meridian, Natchez, and Biloxi–surely there were some north of I-20?
Confederate veterans stalked the halls of a specially built annex, constructed in 1901 (burned in a “mysterious fire” in 1918). And to top it off, the University of Mississippi operated its first medical school here in the academic year 1910-11.
This image, dated 1959, is from a dedication ceremony booklet for the new annex to the rear of the original building. The booklet is located in the MDAH subject file "KUHN MEMORIAL HOSPITAL STATE CHARITY"
In 1954, a former resident of Vicksburg, Lee Kuhn, having long since moved to New York City, died and left his estate of $400,000 to the Vicksburg Charity Hospital. In his will, Kuhn directed that a 7-person committee composed of three Jews, two Catholics, and two Protestants be formed to decide the best way to disburse the money. The committee decided that a new building would be the best use, and in 1959, the institution opened a large new facility to the rear of the original buildings. The institution was also renamed in honor of Mr. Kuhn. Changes in medicine and mission brought about yet another large building in 1962, this one replacing the antebellum “substantial house” and its 1909 annex with the brick building that greets a visitor today. Probably both the 1959 and the 1962 buildings were designed by Raymond Birchett, Vicksburg architect and great-grandson of the original Dr. Birchett.
The Kuhn closed in 1989, a victim of state politics and of course funding issues. Here’s how the Vicksburg Evening Post described the closure in its June 25, 1989 article “Kuhn Provided Long, Proud History of Medical Care”:
Kuhn Memorial State Hospital’s role in the history of Vicksburg comes to an end this week.
On Friday, state funding runs out for Kuhn, causing the charity institution to shut its doors.
State funding also runs out for Matty Hersee Hospital in Meridian and South Mississippi State Hospital in Laurel, Mississippi’s other two general charity hospitals.
. . . .
Through much of the hospital’s history, two topics have surfaced again and again as topics of interest: money and babies.
According to a 1944 Vicksburg newspaper article, ’360 babies were born at the hospital last year, about 90 percent of them colored.’
From Jan. 1 to May 31, this year 72 babies started their lives at Kuhn. The hospital’s last baby was delivered this month.
State funding has been a perennial question for charity hospitals.
. . . .
‘Every two years or so there’s been talk about closing down Kuhn,’ nursing supervisor Ruth Christian said last week. ‘But nobody ever pushed the issue until (Gov. Ray Mabus) did this year.’
The Mississippi Legislature this year approved a $2.08 million budget for Kuhn Memorial. It also OK’d $2.13 million for Matty Hersee Hospital, $2.03 million for Laurel’s South Mississippi State Hospital and $99,642 for the State Eleemosynary Board.
Mabus, however, vetoed the support.
Kuhn has stood vacant for the two decades since this article, and as you can see in the pictures below, the results aren’t pretty. However, I was genuinely surprised to see how solid the two buildings are, apart from the missing windows, doors, and vandalized interiors. The bones of steel and concrete are solid. As for a use, I have no ideas, but maybe this post will inspire somebody to think of something and motivate them to get going.
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From all appearances it would seem that the Kuhn is headed for demolition by neglect. Rather a shame that the original buildings were destroyed. Do you think there is any reasonable hope that any part of the hospital could be saved?
Posted by Tom Barnes | September 23, 2010, 8:09 amThis changes my opinion of Ray Mabus. Interesting history lesson about the hospital, though. Thanks for the post!
Posted by Susan Allen | September 23, 2010, 8:15 amOK, a quick google search on Ray Mabus and Kuhn hospital returned this 1989 article from the Orlando Sentinel, which makes a little more sense. Mabus proposed re-channelling the hospital funds into Medicaid so they could receive federal matching funds. Still not good for the buildings, though …
January 31, 1989
CHARITY HOSPITALS. Gov. Ray Mabus has proposed closing the three charity hospitals that the nation’s poorest state operates for its poorest people. Mabus says the poor would be better served if hospital money went instead into Medicaid and got federal funds. Opponents claim to have 100,000 signatures to keep the hospitals open. Mabus, a Democrat, wants to close Matty Hersee Hospital in Meridian, South Mississippi State Hospital in Laurel and Kuhn Memorial State Hospital in Vicksburg. The hospitals, set up in 1916, together maintain 199 of the state’s 15,800 hospital beds on a $6.8 million budget.
Posted by Kathleen Jenkins | September 23, 2010, 9:25 amIt is too bad that the Vicksburg Post’s archives are now pay-per-view, they ran a nice article last November about Kuhn Hospital. It contained an in-depth history of the hospital, interviews with former employees, and a look at the current ownership situation. If I recall correctly, the hospital is not owned by the state anymore but a private developer.
I have an acquaintance here at MSU who is working on a thesis about disabled Northeast Mississippi Civil War veterans and, from what he has told me, you would be surprised at the paltry medical facilities in that area decades after the Civil War. I know that my home in the Shoals (Alabama) did not receive a dedicated hospital until World War I, and it was a larger-sized area even then, not a small town. Healthcare was not a much of a priority then or now for Southern leaders.
Posted by W. White | September 23, 2010, 3:14 pmI was born in that hospital in 1981, wish I had money to save it. There’s a lot of history in those buildings…
Posted by Dee Prodigal | October 2, 2010, 12:12 amWas there the morning of 12/29/2010 – watch the tires for broken glass.
The building is wide open, so like the Mayville KY hospital. There’s glass on the paving, but the building is unsupervised and open for urban explorers – some “common sense” safety issues, and lots of glass on the paved areas – so park by the ambulance awning (not under it)
Posted by Explorer | December 30, 2010, 2:23 amI am a Paranormal Investigator and would love to get our Paranormal Group in there to do an Investigation. Anyone know who owns the Building now?
Posted by Helen Gresham | February 27, 2011, 7:36 pmBeen in there several times..got TONS of EVP….
Posted by JustChecking | April 9, 2012, 5:42 pmI delivered babies at Kuhn from 1980-1983. I am a Certified Nurse Midwife, educated in Jackson. I have stories about Kuhn you would NOT believe. I wonder what happened to the HUGE books in the basement recording the names, dates, and medical problems of patients going way back to 1900? The 4th floor was a minimum security prison. The inmates staffed the hospital, working jobs such as cleaning, clerking. Several became my good friends.
Dee, you were born there in 1981? I could have delivered you!
Posted by Janne Debes | June 6, 2011, 5:17 amMy surviving son was born May 1981 at Kuhn. I went through hell and back during my 36 1/2 hours of hard labor but, I would not trade it for anything in the world. They (Sis. Marcy & Dr. Pontis (sp?) were amazing! As well as a male nurse named Thomas! If it had not been for Kuhn and it’s staff, I would have lost both my babies at the same time. It really distresses me to know and see the photos of that miracle working place.
Posted by Diana J. McLeod Medlen | July 1, 2011, 10:29 pmSr. Marcy was wonderful. Dr. Potnis is still alive, in Kentucky, but very ill. He was gifted and caring. There were many VERY committed people working there. It was a sad day when they shut it down.
Posted by Janne Debes | July 2, 2011, 5:08 amI was born at Kuhn on Saturday July 12, 1980 at 7:06pm…….Much of the stuff that you speak of i.e. inmates/workers and even the mental patients that were there i can still remember. I recently went to the location and saw the dilapidated state of the building and was in shock that it still stood. Somehow I still remember these things and remembered the severe lack of parking and the view of the Mississippi River from there.
Posted by Darius B | July 20, 2011, 11:46 amI would really like to hear your stories!! We went and explored that place and it was really awesome…would you please share some information with me. My email is misteeleereverns@yahoo.com
Posted by Kyia | July 29, 2011, 9:25 pmSomeday I’ll post some stories about people there!
Posted by Janne Debes | December 20, 2011, 7:51 amDid you know Johnny B. Taylor? I hear she was one of the first black nurses employed. There should be some form of black history documentation noted for the first black nurses employed at Khun.
Posted by Joby | February 3, 2012, 5:48 pmI don’t remember her. I wonder when she was there?
Posted by Janne Debes | February 3, 2012, 9:17 pmMy Mother-in-law Carolyn Flether Peebles gave birth to my husband on December 19, 1982 @ Kuhn state hospital so you might have delived him! She said there wasn’t any air conditioning and that there was no pain medication….. OUCH!!
Posted by Amy Peebles | February 20, 2012, 2:54 pmMy mom was a corrections officer there in the 80′s up until it was closed.
Posted by Melissa Falls | March 29, 2012, 10:05 pmIt’s a possibility Janne, my family is heavily rooted in Vicksburg. I’m a Beamon, Walter Beamon at that, my uncle was a cop there for many years.
Posted by Dee Prodigal | June 6, 2011, 8:36 pmDee, somewhere in the stuff I have packed for moving, I have a notebook recording the names of all the women whose babies I delivered. I will look in 1981 when I find that notebook! I am in touch with another nurse midwife from those days at Kuhn. I know she has a record of all her women too.
Posted by Janne Debes | June 7, 2011, 8:06 amJanne, I wonder if you’ve ever thought of donating your records to an archives, whether MDAH or the Old Courthouse Museum or somewhere that they would be protected and more generally available? Those sound like such valuable records, it would be a shame for them to be lost in the shuffle of time.
Posted by ELMalvaney | June 7, 2011, 10:07 pmWhat an interesting idea. I also saved a lot of letters to my parents about events at Kuhn, and especially amazing birth events, prisoner-workers, etc. I’ve been so busy since leaving Kuhn in 1983 that I haven’t looked at any of that material since.
Posted by Janne Debes | June 8, 2011, 5:12 amJoanne I just came across your post….would you or.the nurse midwife you are in contact.with worked in the year 1978…? Delivering babies?
Posted by amanda | October 16, 2011, 10:59 pmAwesome, I hope you find it and would like to keep in touch with you to hear all about Kuhn. As you well know, I know very little about it and I’m very intrigued of its history.
dee_prodigal@yahoo.com
Posted by Dee Prodigal | June 7, 2011, 10:29 amFound a Postcard image of the original Vicksburg City Hospital which became State Charity Hospital at Vicksburg with the Confederate Veterans Annex
Lost of historical images of Vicksburg buildings in this digital archive collection
Mississippi State Charity Hospital and Confederate Veterans Annex, Vicksburg, Miss
Forrest Lamar Cooper Postcard Collection
Mississippi Archives image
http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/cooper/index.php?itemno=2792
Posted by Charles Bell | June 10, 2011, 6:02 amOh! That is beautiful! I walked through that front door almost daily for 3 years, 1980-1983.
Posted by Janne Debes | June 10, 2011, 6:38 amI just thought of something else. Up the street from Kuhn Memorial was The Pest House. Anyone remember that? Long LONG ago, anyone with an infectious disease was put there until they recovered.
Posted by Janne Debes | June 10, 2011, 6:41 amI was born at Kuhn in 1978. I remember I cut my foot when I was a toddler and my mom didn’t have a car, she picked me up and ran to Kuhn because it was a very bad cut. Its sad to see the hospital in that condition. When I vist Vicksburg, I slow down every time I pass by whats left of Kuhn.
Posted by Lee Griffin | September 30, 2011, 3:48 pmDid anyone know of or work during 1978 in the labor and delivery floor??
Posted by amanda | October 21, 2011, 10:46 pmAnne Peacock was the chief nurse midwife, and Dr. Krish Potnis the ob/gyn.
Posted by Janne Debes | October 24, 2011, 9:22 pmWe are just looking for any information. My husband was born during.this year and we know.he grandmother.was a nurse at Kuhn during.this time…thanks for.the response
Posted by amanda | December 20, 2011, 1:11 amMatty Hersee was eventually taken over by Meridian Community College and turned into dormitories. However, it sat vacant for years, and frankly it was pretty creepy. I remember riding past it as a child and SWEARING i saw ghosts in the windows. Obviously, my big brother had far too much fun filling my head with claptrap…
Posted by Suzanne | March 28, 2012, 9:44 amAs a local paranormal investigator this place has intrigued me since I found out about it.Not being originally from here, I viewed it as just another building with a history to investigate. When you do step inside (and as one person said..there ARE common sense safety issues-you need to be careful if you go) you can feel the weight of history on your shoulders, with every breath, and every step. It is SO sad to see that place falling. Even in ruin the place is beautiful. There is some sort of work going on next to it and even inside it; someone is cleaning, or removing debris, and under the awning which separates the two buildings it looks like someone has tied a chain around part of the brick and sped off to tear down just one section of wall. It’s really sad. As for the paranormal, it IS home to many, many spirits. I’d love to get permission to go all out and do a full fledged investigation at night but there are, as I know, safety concerns both human and natural. If you get the chance to drive by and see it it truly is a breathtaking place. You don’t have to get out to appreciate it. I think it would be sooo nice to have that place rebuilt into a museum for civil war medicines or at least restored to a part of its former glory. It is sooo sad to see it like it is, but when you pull up beside it you actually feel the history. It is amazing.
Posted by JustChecking | April 9, 2012, 5:48 pmI was wandering if any of you ladys that worked or knew of someone that worked at Kuhn might would know my grandmother, I personally dont know her , I was adopted, I do have a sister, I am just inquiring I have a sick son and would like to find her if she is still alive. thanks
Posted by Michael | April 16, 2012, 12:01 pmDoes anybody on this list know anything about the “Pest House” not far from Kuhn where infectious patients were sent?
I will be visiting Kuhn tomorrow around noon in case any fans of Kuhn want to join me.
Posted by Janne | May 4, 2012, 9:27 am