Bamberg County Memorial
Hospital & Nursing Center
509 North Street
Bamberg, SC 29003
Phone: 803-245-4321 Visit our website
A county-wide referendum on June 8, 1948, resulted in 1,489 favorable votes for the building of the hospital facility with 578 opposed. At the 1949 session of the General Assembly, Senator J. Carl Kearse and Representative Ralph Hutto enacted the necessary legislation creating the Bamberg County Memorial Hospital Board.
On November 2, 1950, the contract was awarded to Ralph Fine of Spartanburg and a ground breaking ceremony was held on November 14. The main building funds came from the county, state “kickback” funds and federal Hill-Burton funds. Funds for the Nurses’ Home Building came from citizen contributions, a large contribution from Dr. Robert Black, and a federal grant. The total cost of the hospital together with the nurses quarters, which was located adjacent to the hospital, was $528,114 dollars.
The site of the hospital was given free of charge by Nelle M. Bamberg. This was a five acre tract of land located just behind the Northern limits of the City of Bamberg but close enough to the City for water and sewer line connections. Regrettably, Mrs. Bamberg did not live to see the realization of her dream of the hospital construction.
The plans by Columbia architects LaFaye, Fair and LaFaye, for a 19,000 square foot building containing 32 beds and also a Nurses Residence building were approved by the Board of Directors on January 9, 1950.
The institution was named Bamberg County Memorial Hospital as a memorial to the brave Bamberg County men who gave their lives and service to their country in the wars since the county was formed in 1897.
According to records, J. Clyde Kearse, a veteran game warden of Bamberg County, was the first patient admitted to the hospital. Soon after the hospital opened, a baby girl was born in the delivery room to Mr. and Mrs. Leon Coleman of Bamberg.