Watts Hospital – Durham, North Carolina

Over the past week or so, I’ve not felt particularly inspired to do much blog posting. I have been working on my family tree (and others) over this time, but nothing has really jumped out at me to blog about. But, I have been enjoying myself.
Just today, I found a connection that my stepfather has with one of the high schools I went to.  One of my stepfather’s ancestors was named Roosevelt Weaver (1905-1966). He was the son of Archie & Mary (Daye) Weaver.  Roosevelt was born in Durham and lived there his whole life (well, at least he was there in each census record throughout his lifetime).
I was searching the NC Death Certificate collection in Ancestry and found his death certificate. I was very surprised to see his place of death – Watts Hospital!
Watts Hospital operated in Durham from 1895-1976 and was the city’s first hospital. In 1980, the hospital became home to the North Carolina School of Science & Math – a school I attended during my 11th and 12th grade years!  It has been 15 years since I graduated high school, but I certainly remember walking the hallways  – we all knew it had been a hospital previously, and I can still  *see* the pictures of the wards that they had hanging around the school.
My mother tells me that she thinks her father-in-law may have also worked on the hospital grounds at some point – she is going to check.
What an interesting intersection I’ve had today.  🙂  Below is a picture of the Watts Hospital campus from the 1950s and in the yellow circle is the part of the campus that I lived in both years I was there – 1992 & 1993.  The picture is from a postcard collection I found online.