It has been 100 years since Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital opened their doors. Phoebe leaders celebrated by cutting the ribbon on their centennial museum Sunday.
The museum shows Phoebe's rich history through artifacts and photographs depicting the foundation that has led the hospital top where they are today.
100 years of history is displayed on these walls. For Beverly Bethea Olliff, one of those artifacts brings back memories.
"I am glad my family has such deep roots in Albany, if your mother is the first baby born, in what then was the only hospital here, you have got to know that your family has been around for a long time," says Beverly Bethea Olliff.
This baby, is her mother, Mildred Ponder Bethea, the first baby ever born in Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital. The birth came 2 years after it opened in 1911, because back then babies were most commonly delivered at home.
"You really find out how much the history of your family means to you, I think the girls came today because I asked them to but I think when they stood and looked at their grandmother they were very glad they were here," says Olliff.
She brought three of her daughters and two of her grandchildren. "I was born in this hospital and so was she, three generations born in this hospital," says Olliff.
The museum opened today, after five years of collecting artifacts and medical instruments that narrate Phoebe's 100 year history.
"It will be a good place for people to come when they are here in the hospital, maybe waiting for a person having some tests done, they will have an opportunity to come through and it will be a destination here in the hospital," says Lacy Lee, 2011 Centennial Committee Co-Chair.
A destination that gives visitors the opportunity to look back on the past.
The museum is located on the Second Floor of Medical Tower One. Many items that could not fit at Phoebe will be showcased at the Thronateeska Heritage Center. That exhibit will open on Thursday.
Copyright 2012 WALB. All rights reserved.
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2013 Worldnow and WALB, a Raycom Media Station. 
