Sunland Hospital



Sunland Hospital refers to a chain of defunct mental health facilities located throughout the state of Florida.

Originally named the W. T. Edwards Tuberculosis Hospitals, the facilities were later remodeled into "Sunland Centers" with services for the mentally and physically disabled, specializing mostly in children. A large majority of the centers were shut down by 1983 for various health and safety reasons. Much of the historical information found in this article was compiled from the Florida Archives.

W. T. Edwards Tuberculosis Hospital
Though information is vague, Florida archives note W. T. Edwards as an important figure in state healthcare, donating significant amounts of money to various medical facilities. When a new series of state-of-the-art tuberculosis hospitals opened in roughly 1952, they were named in honor of W. T. Edwards. The hospitals were located all over the state of Florida, including Tampa, Lantana, Marianna, Tallahassee, Miami and several other cities in south Florida.

All of the hospital buildings were constructed in the same basic way. The main buildings were all very long and thin, consisting of 5 floors with a few smaller wings branching off from the main building. At the time, it was thought that fresh air was the best treatment for TB, so the buildings were riddled with multi-pane windows which could be opened by cranks. The back side of each building was a wall of windows, while the front windows were more evenly spaced apart, especially in sections that did not house patients.

It is also rumored on various fanmade websites, but not confirmed officially, that the deceased TB patients were incinerated in the basement furnaces. This is quite likely, since due to the contagiousness of the disease, bodies were often burned rather than buried. This would give way to stories of hauntings in later years.

When the vaccine for TB was discovered, there was no longer a need for tuberculosis hospitals and the W. T. Edwards Hospitals were all closed by the start of the 1960s. The facilities fell under the jurisdiction of the Florida Department of Health and it wouldn't take long for the hospitals to reopen as Sunlands across the state.

Sunland Training Centers
In 1961 the Division of Sunland Training Centers was established on the Board of Commissioners for Institutions and replaced the Division of Farm Colonies in Florida. Many former W. T. Edwards Hospitals were remodeled and reopened as Sunland Mental Hospitals. The main Sunland building, located in Orlando, was the only one not housed in a former Edwards hospital. The building in Orlando was only 3 floors, but had many wings. Between 1965-1967, the patients from Orlando were often transported to the various other Sunland Centers when they were ready to accept them.

At first the Centers did well, but soon they were plagued with problems, mostly due to understaffing and underfunding. The most infamous facility for patient neglect was the Sunland located in Tallahassee, which not only suffered from severe staff shortages, but also significant deterioration of the physical plant itself, as noted on the now closed website dedicated to researching Sunland; SunlandInfo.com.

Many Sunlands had various activities for the patients, who were mostly children, to engage in. There were swimming pools with rails and plastic wheelchairs, hopscotch, shuffleboard and frequent appearances by figures like Woodsy Owl and even the state governor himself. Many of the patients were also official Boy Scouts and often held meetings on the hospital grounds with Scoutmasters. Pictures still exist in the Florida archives of children in full uniform posing in their wheelchairs and hospital beds.

As the state of the Hospitals declined, they fell under the Department of Children and Families and underwent several name changes until settling on the format of "Sunland at 'City Name'." Eventually, groups like the Association for Retarded Citizens stepped in and began speaking out against institutions like Sunland, which often treated its patients as "sub-human", subjecting them to electroconvulsive therapy among other treatments which were coming to be considered cruel.

The sun sets on Sunland
As the 1970s came to an end, it soon became obvious that Sunland would not survive. Most of the centers closed down by 1980 and dispersed their patients to foster homes.

The original plan was to use the buildings as storage space for the State and many buildings did follow this plan, most notably the location in Tampa, which was alternately in use by area college students as a lab facility until 1992 when that particular building shut down permanently. Earlier this year, the building was fenced off and the windows have been removed. The building seems set to be demolished soon as of November 2006.

As of July 2007, nothing remains of the once prestigious hospital in Tampa. Hillsborough Community College is responsible for its destruction. Plans are currently underway by Tampa based art collective Beacon Meadows, in conjunction with several local history organizations, to properly memorialize W.T. Edwards Tuberculosis Hospital of Tampa and all of its rich history

Another location in Lantana did later reopen as the United States' only functioning TB hospital; the A.G. Holley Building, which was originally the Southeastern State Hospital still operates today. Though it was never remodeled into a Sunland, it is the only functional building of that type today. Current plans are to cease operations at this location, however, and destroy the building to make way for a public library.

The main building in Orlando was demolished in 1997 after an urban explorer fell down an elevator shaft as documented in this news story. Though the man survived, the building was labeled unsafe and was quickly taken down and paved over with a children's park. Some campus buildings still remain encircling the park to this day. The building in Marianna underwent recent demolition and was part of a Sunland Campus that still operates today, though the old Hospital Building was long-abandoned.

The Tallahassee location is scheduled to be demolished within the next year or two (as of 2006) according to reports on a local Tallahassee news website WCTV Channel 6. Aztec Environmental is working on the site at current.

The Landmark Learning Center, formerly a Sunland center in Miami that changed its name, closed in 2005.

Gulf Coast Center, formerly a Sunland Center, is still in operation in Fort Myers. It is scheduled to be closed in 2010.

Tacachale center in Gainesville, a former Sunland Center, is still in operation today with no plans of closing down.

Many of the above listed centers were not housed in the familiar hospital buildings like the locations in Tallahassee and Tampa.

The plan that some advocates for the developmentally disabled want is for all large institutions to be closed down and have all developmentally disabled live in their own homes, either homes shared by roommates or in their own apartments in the community. The State of Florida at this time is not providing enough funding for the non-profit group home/supported living agencies to expand, therefore the disabled wait ten years before they can get their own home. This is why the Sunland centers are still open, there's simply no other place for the developmentally disabled to wait for placement into their own homes.

Sunland at Tallahassee


The most infamous Sunland location is the one located in Tallahassee. It received its first 10 residents from the Orlando Sunland in March 1967. Of particular note, only the Sunland at Tallahassee and Sunland at Orlando locations were actually considered "hospitals" due to the fact that they cared for both mentally and physically disabled patients while all other centers cared for mentally disabled patients only.

Over the years, due to the lack of funds and on-site staff, the patients were often neglected, according to state reports found in the Florida Archives. This led to many ghost stories. While there were some deaths at Sunland, the deceased were not burned in the furnaces (which may have been the case in its days as a TB hospital) nor were they buried on the property, as is popular local legend. They were actually taken by ambulance to the nearby Tallahassee Memorial Hospital's morgue, as Sunland itself had no facilities to properly care for deceased patients.

The building, like its sisters, is extremely long and thin and littered with windows. There are 5 floors on the main wing, with the ground floor being partially underground in the front. A small 3-floor wing sticks out on the front west side of the building, housing one of the two reception areas. A larger 4-floor wing in the front-middle of the building houses the kitchen, main reception area, auditorium, pharmacy and dental/examining room locations as well as the administrative offices. There is roof access via the central stair well only. The tops of the elevator towers may also be accessed by ladders on the outside of the towers.

Sunland at Tallahassee stood relatively obscure in the middle of a wooded area on Phillips Road, right off of Miccosukee Road, for years. In the early 2000s, an extension to Blair Stone Road cleared the area around Sunland and gained the old abandoned hospital significantly more exposure. It was previously used as additional employee parking by nearby Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, but was abandoned as a parking lot in 1999. As local teens began to frequent the building, it became necessary to erect a fence around it, which did nothing to keep curious explorers out, even with police patrolling the area. People from neighboring states also began to travel to visit the infamous Sunland at Tallahassee.

In reality, there was nothing much left of the old Hospital. Besides a few rusty cribs and beds and very little office furniture, the building was all but gutted and destroyed by vandals over the years before it became more heavily exposed. The state of Florida desperately wanted to be rid of the old eyesore, but due to the cost of asbestos abatement and lead paint removal, finding a buyer who would foot those bills plus the 3.5 million dollar price tag (noted on several news reports in the Tallahassee Democrat) on the property, was nearly impossible.

It was almost purchased in 2004 by a Winter Park businessman, but that deal fell through. In December 2005, the property was finally bought and the buyer promised to have the building demolished by the end of 2006. Aztec Environmental quickly set up shop and as of June 2006, the building is being sealed in order to proceed with the daunting task of asbestos abatement for the 189,000 square foot building. Its neighboring campus buildings have already been destroyed.

The current plan is to erect a series of office buildings and commercial fronts called "Mandalay Square" which would stand on the site where the current Sunland building and it's now-demolished sister buildings are. A separate park of residential units are planned to be built in the heavily wooded area behind the Sunland building, which will be called "Mandalay Bay" according to large signs along the roadside of the property.

On Wednesday September 6, 2006, work began on demolishing the old 5-story hospital building, beginning with the east end facing Blair Stone Road. The north facade was knocked out on the first three floors and a crane has been used to claw at the building, taking it down little by little. According to the coordinator of the demolition, the building is "not cooperating" and it may take more than a month to complete the process of taking it down and hauling the debris away. Estimates are that it will take 700 dumptrucks to remove the remains of the building, cited in news reports from the Tallahassee Democrat.

By October 15, 2006 Sunland Hospital was half way demolished.

November 5, 2006 only the elevator shaft remains.

November 21, 2006 the elevator tower was finally demolished, effectively reducing the entire building to rubble. Dump trucks continue taking loads of the debris away daily.

By the conclusion of the 2006 year, all traces of Sunland at Tallahassee have been removed. Only a shelf of dirt remains where the building's underground section was located.

In early 2007-present day work began prepping the old Sunland site for construction. The densely wooded area behind the building has been cleared and several ditches have been dug and filled with rocks. Large stone walls are also being erected and sod has been laid in several places over the property. Several dozens of pallets of stones, lumber and drainage tubing are all on site and the area has been fenced in. The small area across the street where the garage once stood is also fenced in and contains the construction foreman's trailer. No signs of the Sunland campus remain.

A.G. Holley Hospital in Lantana


A. G. Holley State Hospital (AGH) was opened in 1950 as the Southeast Tuberculosis Hospital. It was originally built to serve 500 patients, with living accommodations for the physicians, nurses and administrative staff. It was the second of four state tuberculosis hospitals built in Florida between 1938 and 1952. The other hospitals have since closed. A. G. Holley is the last of the original American sanatoriums that continues to be dedicated to tuberculosis.

With the discovery of drugs to treat tuberculosis patients outside of the hospital setting, the daily census at the hospital by 1971 dropped to less than half of the original 500. By 1976 the beds and staff at A.G. Holley were reduced to serve a maximum of 150 patients. As space became available, other agencies were invited to move onto the complex to utilize the unique environment.

As the incidence of TB declined, so did the number of beds. Although the hospital is currently licensed for 100 beds, it is only funded for 50. As the rate of tuberculosis continued to decline, the hospital was faced with closure.

Tuberculosis in the United States and especially in Florida began to increase in the mid '80s. This was due to the emergence of HIV, an increase in homelessness, drug addiction, immigration from areas of high tuberculosis, the spread in institutional settings, and the spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis.

Rumors and hauntings
There were many stories of paranormal encounters experienced while in and around the Sunland Building, particularly the one in Tallahassee. Claims of unexplained lights and sounds abound. Stories ranged from simple disembodied footsteps to rusty beds moving on their own to block people inside a particular room. There was also a very well-known story of the sound of a child jumping rope on the floor above where a person was. Toys left in the building were said to have been moved or played with, but due to the heavy stream of people visiting the building, it's impossible to say if this was paranormal or the meddling of another group of people coming through. Another claim that patients were horribly mistreated and abused is also popular, but unfounded.

Some stories get confused, such as the rumor that the third floor is locked. This was true of the Sunland in Orlando, but not of the one in Tallahassee, as per accounts of those who had entered the buildings, as is often mistaken by urban explorers. Some doors were in fact locked at the Tampa location. These doors were easily bypassed by ascending the stairs on one side of the door and descending the stairs on the opposite side.

Ghost hunters who had visited the Tallahassee building claimed it was full of paranormal activity and cited the constant appearance of "orbs" in their photographs as proof of this. While some photos may be indicative of some sort of unseen force, much of this could be explained away as dust or humidity playing games with the camera lens, as all the buildings were moist and dusty.

Other rumors persisted for years that Sunland at Tallahassee had at least one or more sub-basements that were supposedly flooded and inaccessible. These rumors were all proven false when the building was demolished, as the foundation was dug up, revealing nothing beneath it.