Leonard Medical Hospital
Leonard Medical Hospital was erected in 1912 to support the neighboring Leonard Medical School in the education of black physicians at Shaw University. The hospital initially opened in an 1885 frame building behind the medical school. It provided much-needed health care for Raleigh’s black community, which generally could not get treatment at Rex Hospital during the segregated period of Raleigh’s history.
Chatham County native Gaston Alonzo Edwards was the architect. Edwards was North Carolina’s first professionally registered black architect. He also designed the 1907 Masonic Temple Building at 427 S. Blount Street and oversaw the 1909 rebuilding of the St. Paul’s A.M.E. Church at 402 W. Edenton Street. Leonard Hospital closed in 1914 and has been converted into a classroom building known as Tyler Hall.
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