The story of the Alexander County Hospital is a fascinating one. While many hospitals are dreamed up by individual doctors or else corporations, the Taylorsville hospital was something different.
And the best people to tell that story are the ones who lived it, the ones who made it. The residents of Alexander county:
The hospital was never on par with surrounding major hospitals like Davis, but it became an integral part of the community. Today, it’s a 30 minute drive to reach any other acute care facility. In the early days when the hospital was being built, with rural roads and poor conditions, who knows how long a trip to Hickory or Statesville might take.
Unfortunately, as healthcare changed, became more expensive, the hospital’s policy of treating anyone who needed help began to hurt the institution financially. It was finally taken over by Frye Hospital in downtown Hickory and became something of an urgent care, but still continued to struggle. It managed to limp along into 2004 when it was closed after over half a century of service. As a result, Alexander county is now a county without a hospital.
Since it’s closing, the standard fate has befallen the old building. Looting, vandalism. A man was even found deceased on the property.
In more recent years, the town of Taylorsville has used the property’s parking lot for farmer’s markets and various festivals. The local fire department even raised $30,000 using the building as a haunted house during Halloween.
But it’s safe to say that whatever happens now, the building will never be a hospital again, and so much the worse for the residents of the county, whose parents and grandparents worked to ensure their children would grow up with basic human necessities.
