| City/Town: • Newnan |
| Location Class: • Medical / Hospital |
| Built: • 1962 | Abandoned: • 2012 |
| Status: • Abandoned • Private Property |
| Photojournalist: • Gage Griffith |
Table of Contents
The County Hospital
Established by the county Hospital Authority in 1962 just outside Newnan, Georgia, CCGH was a public hospital created to serve the less affluent residents of Coweta County who couldn’t afford visits to the private city hospital in Newnan. The hospital, standing four stories tall and shaped like an H, featured brick masonry and marble. Initially equipped with 148 patient rooms, two operating rooms, and a state-of-the-art Radiology department, it aimed to provide accessible healthcare to the local community.
In 1973, the county successfully garnered funds for a significant expansion on the southern side of the hospital. CCGH officially augmented its emergency department by adding 20 beds and expanding its laboratory space. During this period, the hospital briefly served as the County’s Morgue. In 1980, another expansion took place, this time on the north side, resulting in the establishment of a new Intensive Care Unit. Funds for this expansion were raised through the sale of old equipment and by organizing a farmers market on the hospital grounds.
In 1980, CCGH was listed for sale as the County Hospital Authority found it financially unsustainable to maintain hospital operations. The county attributed the decision to factors such as staff wages, a limited number of surgeries, and outstanding medical bills amounting to millions of dollars.
Period of Instability
In October 1982, Humana Inc., a healthcare corporation based in Kentucky, acquired CCGH and subsequently rebranded it as Coweta General Hospital. By 1993, Humana had grown to become the largest hospital operator in the country, overseeing 77 hospitals. To streamline operations, Humana executives separated hospital operations from health insurance operations, forming Galen Health Care. The next year, they completed the sale of the hospitals under Galen Health Care Inc., including Coweta General, to Hospital Corporation of America.
Yet again, CGH faced financial challenges and sought assistance. In 2000, Emory Healthcare acquired a 50% ownership stake in Coweta General Hospital from the Hospital Corporation of America, resulting in the formation of Emory-Peachtree Regional Hospital. However, the venture operated for just four years before filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in 2004. Shortly thereafter, Newnan Hospital, the very institution it was initially built to compete with, purchased EPRH and renamed it Newnan Hospital West Campus.
In 2006, Piedmont Healthcare, based in Atlanta, Georgia, acquired Newnan Hospital West Campus. Subsequently, in 2012, the state-of-the-art Piedmont Newnan Hospital was inaugurated, consolidating all operations and services from the former Coweta General location to the new facility and officially concluding the operations of the old hospital.
filmography
In both 2014 and 2022, the old Coweta General site served as a stand-in for Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital in AMC’s The Walking Dead. AMC invested $100,000 to transform the hospital site, creating a convincingly overgrown and destroyed appearance for the show.
In 2020, the former Coweta General Hospital site once again became a filming location, this time portraying Downriver Memorial Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, for BMF (Black Mafia Family). The production extensively utilized various areas inside the hospital, including the lobby, third floor, and ICU.
Photo Gallery
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