The Website of
TRENTON CREATIVE ENTERPRISES
Where Old Gastonia Lives!
On Gastonia, On Gastonia. We Are All For You!
LOST AND ENDANGERED
Original Gastonia City Hospital, located on the third, fourth, and part of the fifth floor of the Realty Building, built in 1912. It stood at the current location of Citizens South Bank on West Main Avenue and was razed in 1971.
OLD CITY HOSPITAL/GASTON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL COMPLEX
NORTH HIGHLAND STREET AT WEST MAUNEY AVENUE
THREATENED WITH DEMOLITION
Illustration from Gastonia Centennial Commemorative Book: 1877-1977, edited by James H. Atkins, published by Gastonia Centennial Celebration, Inc., 1977. The caption read, "The old Gaston Memorial Hospital was a 223-bed institution located on N. Highland St. It began in 1946 with the purchase of the old City Hospital, darker portion of building on the left, which was opened in 1924. The new addition, lighter section, was opened in 1951, and the portion joining the two buildings was completed in 1957."
Linen postcard of Gaston Memorial Complex in 1951.
Gastonia's City Hospital circa 1924. (Credits: Scott Lewis; print by Jim Brown.)
From American Legion Post 23 Junior Baseball Championship Program 1950.
From American Legion Post 23 Junior Baseball Chapionship Program 1950.
CITY HOSPITAL BUILDING
MAY 18, 2007
(Click on image for slideshow.)
GASTON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL ADDITION (BUILT 1951)
MAY 18, 2007
(Click on image for slideshow.)
ORIGINAL NURSING SCHOOL BUILDING
MAY 18, 2007
(Click on image for slideshow.)
STONE WALLS
MAY 18, 2007
(Click image for slideshow.)
GASTON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
1951 LAMP POSTS
THESE HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE PROPERTY.
IT WOULD BE INTERESTING TO DETERMINE THEIR PRESENT LOCATION.
Gastonia Gazette article August 16, 1956 describing the pending construction of the final addition to the old Gaston Memorial Hospital.
GASTON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL DEDICATION
(Photo submitted by Deb Lewis Ogden. Her father, Gordon Lewis, is standing at far left in the color guard. Other color guard members, left to right: Ira Cox, Ralph Jordan, and Lester Kinlaw.)
The Legionnaire in the center of the three seated at right is Ernest R. Morgan. He was the general contractor who built the National Bank of Commerce building in 1956 (recently demolished), a city councilman, an Army colonel in World War II, and a Gastonia civic leader. He gave the dedicatory speech for the presentation of the hospital to the county. (Information furnished by his son-in-law, Bill Beam.)
THE GASTON COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY AUXILIARY
ESTABLISHED 1947
(Article courtesy of Deb Lewis Ogden.)
Click Image for Slideshow.
ARTICLES FROM THE 1973 YEARBOOK OF THE GASTON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL SCHOOL OF NURSING
(THE SCHOOL'S FINAL YEAR OF OPERATION)
(Submitted by Deb Lewis Ogden.)
The former banking center of Downtown Gastonia at the intersection of South Marietta Street and Franklin Boulevard, April 7, 1995. The First Union (center) and First Citizens (right) buildings were demolished by order of the Mayor and City Council under the direction of the City Manager to show that they were serious (?) about Downtown redevelopment. (Urban Renewal revisited decades after it was declared an utter failure.) A gravel parking lot now awaits the construction of their "legacy," whatever that might eventually be. (Photograph by Jim Brown.)
National Bank of Commerce / First Union National Bank
(Postcard circa 1956)
Built in 1956 as Gastonia's premier contribution to postwar modernist architecture.
It was declared obsolete by the City Manager and destroyed January 2009 by order of the Mayor and City Council to demonstrate their dedication to Downtown revitalization. Click here to see how the site looked after demolition.
For the history of First National Bank, the National Bank of Commerce, and this building, visit the Journal article entitled "Remember Me as I Was."
