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Grim history draws to a close at Central State
The state is shutting down most of Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, once the nation’s largest psychiatric hospital, to comply with a federal mandate to overhaul the way it provides psychiatric services. By year’s end, all that will remain open will be a secure facility that evaluates and treats criminal defendants who are mentally ill. In the 1950s, the hospital warehoused close to 13,000 patients at a time.
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Georgia’s state seal is embedded in the once-majestic Jones Building on the Central State Hospital campus in Milledgeville. Today, most of the buildings on the expansive campus are empty. One hundred seventy years after it opened, the hospital is rapidly phasing out most of its operations, leaving behind 200 buildings, many of them decrepit and decaying. To read a richly detailed account of the history of Central State Hospital and its impact on Georgia, pick up a copy of Sunday's print AJC or read it on your tablet computer. To subscribe, visit https://ajcdelivers.com/Subscribe.php
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