Rowan General Hospital
This postcard (pictured above and below) is of Rowan General Hospital, Salisbury, North Carolina. It opened in 1936 with 80 beds and 65 staff. At quick glance you might mistake it for the Salisbury General Infirmary perhaps? It has the same number of stories as the main building, with a central staircase to a first floor doorway, and crenelations around the top. Do you think the architect based their design on it’s English older sister, built 1776?
In the photograph below of the Salisbury General Infirmary, held in our collection, you can see original porch staircase for comparison. The east wing (on the left) was built 1847 and the west wing (not yet built in the image) was started in 1868; this information therefore tells us that this a very early photograph of the hospital building.