Georgia’s Old Capital Heritage Center and Seeking Asylum launched the Haunting History Tour around the Central State Hospital grounds Oct. 24 with a sold-out weekend.
Jessica Whitehead, chair of the GOCHC board and founder of Seeking Asylum, led the evening tour with her lantern guides. Starting at the Central State Hospital Museum, located at The Depot, attendees were given time to look at artifacts, pictures of the decay of CSH over the years, and read about the history of workers and patients before embarking on the tour.
The tour highlights the Powell, Walker, Green, Jones, Women’s Convalescent, and Auditorium buildings. The tour focuses on the history of patients and their care, highlighting what many may have experienced during different time periods of the hospital.
“The tour highlights the good and the bad of Central State Hospital, offering a well-rounded view of the history of some of its buildings still viewable to the public,” said Whitehead. “The goal is to educate, not sensationalize. Everything taught is based purely on fact and what attendees can view.
We leave the question of ghosts and hauntings to the attendees.”
According to the walking tour pamphlet, created by Georgia College and the Citizens Visitors Bureau, the Powell Building is the oldest standing structure on the CSH grounds. The structure was named after the hospital’s longest serving superintendent, Dr. Theophilus Powell. It was originally two brick buildings of women’s and men’s wards before a center was built, beginning in 1839 and concluding construction in 1858. It is sometimes called the “main building,” as it was the original sole building of the former Georgia’s Lunatic Asylum.
In 1881, legislation was passed, due to the continuously growing population at the hospital, to build three new buildings including the women’s convalescent building and the Walker Building.
Originally called the men’s convalescent building, the Walker Building housed white male patients from 1886 through 1974, when the building was closed.
The building was renamed to the Walker Building in 1933 after the death of the CSH Clinical Director Dr. N.P. Walker.
In 1925, legislatures approved five more buildings to be built to accommodate the number of patients. The L.M. Jones Building was built in 1927 to serve as a modern psychopathic and hospital facility. Due to lack of funding to furnish the building and pay contractors, the facility opened late in 1931 accommodating up to 240 white male and female patients.
The building closed in 1979, when it no longer met medical needs and its services were moved to the Culver Kidd Building.
In 1947, the Green Building was built following the demolition of the original building in 1939. Named after the hospital’s second superintendent, Dr. Thomas Green, it took over the role of the women’s convalescent building that was torn down in 1947. The Green Building closed in the late 1970s and was given to Baldwin County. It would go on to house the Department of Family Services, the Head Start program, the Adult Education/GED program, and Operation Explore throughout the 1990s.
The auditorium’s construction also began in 1947 and it opened in 1949, offering movie showings, basketball, shuffleboard, and other entertainment for patients. Sunday School services were also conducted in the building until the Chapel of All Faiths was built in 1963. Now, Georgia Military College owns the building and uses it for events. Remains of the entrance to the women’s convalescent building, however, are attached to the side of the auditorium. This facade was saved due to the cornerstone retaining the hospital’s original name, The Georgia Lunatic Asylum, according to the walking tour pamphlet.
“Throughout the tour I ask attendees to imagine what it was like to live here, to work here, to be treated here, and to suffer from these mental disorders. Central State Hospital is alive with stories that we can only imagine and see in the remains of these buildings,” said Whitehead.
“Rather than be forgotten by time, I want people to put themselves in their shoes and see the story of Central State, where overcrowding, understaffing, medical advancement, and societal views impacted the work and care of so many people.” Throughout the tour, a speaker played the names, ages, and reasons of ‘insanity’ recorded for patients found from old records. Whitehead also stopped in front of each building offering audio background to summarize psychosis and detailed lectures of the ongoings of each building. A touch of history shared by all who walked along the sidewalk and through the Pecan Grove surrounded by each of these buildings.
Haunted History Tours will be offered again starting next year on March 21, April 4th and 18th, May 2nd and 16th, July 4th and 18th, Aug.
1st and 15th, Sept. 5th and 19th, and Oct. 23-24 and 30-31. Tickets go on sale Jan. 1, 2026, and are $25, non-refundable, and include admission into the CSH Museum. To register visit thedepotga.org.