Peoples Hospital

Front: Peoples Hospital, the first and only hospital for African Americans in the county from 1937 until Newberry County Memorial Hospital was desegregated in 1952, stood here until 1970. It was founded by Dr. Julian Edward Grant (1900-1997), who practiced medicine in Newberry County for more than fifty years. Grant, a native of Marlboro County, was educated at Claflin University and Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn., before moving to Newberry in 1930. Reverse: Grant, recognizing the need for a hospital for blacks in Newberry, organized a board of trustees from the community. By 1935 the board acquired this site, with a two-story, seven-room frame house on a two-acre lot, for $1,500. The house, renovated and fitted with medical equipment, opened as Peoples Hospital in 1937. The building, later the Vincent Street Community Center after the hospital closed in 1952, was demolished in 1970 to build Vincent Street Park.