Atlanta Medical Center

History

On Thanksgiving Day in 1901, Dr. Len G. Broughton, who served as pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church, started a small infirmary as a church initiative, operating from a rented house. The Tabernacle Infirmary began with just five beds and Broughton as its sole doctor, but it expanded rapidly. By 1910, it had grown to 75 beds, a staff of physicians and surgeons, and its own building on Luckie Street next to the church. Broughton also established a Nurse Training School linked to the infirmary. After Broughton moved to London in 1912, the hospital struggled. In 1913, it was sold to the Georgia Baptist Convention for $85,000 and renamed Georgia Baptist Hospital, managed by Rev. James Long. The Baptist group was initially reluctant to run a hospital, but Long’s efforts made it self-sufficient by 1916. In 1921, the hospital bought the former Levi B. Nelson home site at Boulevard and East Avenue—a property destroyed in the Great Atlanta fire of 1917—and moved there from Luckie Street later that year. A major building expansion began in 1948, with medical office space added in 1956. An air ambulance service with a heliport launched in 1981. On September 5, 1997, Tenet Healthcare purchased the hospital, renaming it Atlanta Medical Center. On March 31, 2016, Wellstar Health System acquired it along with four other Atlanta-area hospitals. Wellstar announced on August 31, 2022, that the hospital would close on November 1, 2022. Atlanta Medical Center shut down permanently at 11:59 p.m. on October 31, 2022. Demolition of the complex began in June 2025, with plans for a multi-use development on the site. The hospital, once known as Georgia Baptist Hospital, had 460 beds, over 700 physicians, and was a Level I Trauma Center and Advanced Primary Stroke Center, housing a Neurointensive Care Unit and a Level III Neonatal ICU. Actress Brittany Murphy was born there.