Lost Hospital Series — Paris Tuberculosis Hospital, Paris, Kentucky

The Paris Tuberculosis Hospital was built between 1946 to 1948. Serving the patients in and around Paris, Kentucky, the Hospital treated tuberculosis patients for about 15 years before modern medicine gained an upper hand on the disease.

An estimated 1,500 people attended the Hospital’s opening ceremonies on June 14, 1950. The 100-bed hospital was the third such facility in the state dedicated to “solving the tuberculosis problem.” An estimated 1,500 died each year from the disease.

Unfortunately, the Hospital was inadequate to care for all of the tubercular patients in the 20-county area nearby. At the time, state law required that the beds in the hospital be allotted to the counties on a population basis, notwithstanding the disease rates.

The tuberculosis hospital closed in the late 1970s.

In the late 1980s, it was proposed that the hospital should be converted into an apartment complex for the elderly.