Lawson Veterans Hospital was located at Camp Gordon in Chamblee. Built as a training facility during World War I, Camp Gordon closed at the wars conclusion in 1918 and sat vacant for many years, reopening just before the U.S. entered World War II in 1941. The Lawson Hospital was completed in May 1941 at a cost of 3.5 million dollars. The hospital was named for Dr. Thomas Lawson, appointed Surgeon General of the Army in 1836 by President Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States. Part of the land on which Camp Gordon sat eventually became Peachree DeKalb Airport. I played in the dilapidated old buildings behind PDK as teenager. All long gone now, starting with airport improvements and later expansion of the IRS and CDC complexes. My friends and I played Army back there.....in our minds it was Europe during WW2 (in the winter) and Vietnam (in the summer) We scared the Bejeebus out some old black man on the other side of the fence one Sunday after.........turns out, we attacked the CDC and freaked out the janitor! (sorry about that dude!) The next thing we knew......every cop in the area was there......Chamblee, Doraville, DeKalb, PDK airport security....like 30 guys for two 14 year olds with camo and toy M-16s......Lucky we didnt get shot!!!! However, cops hadnt become quit so Shoot first and gather facts later yet in the 1980s. In fact, the chief of PDK airport security cleared us to play back there on the condition that we check in with him first, so he knew were we were goofing off behind the airport and to also let him know when we left.....so he knew we did get hurt and might possibly be hurt back there. He was a good guy. Anyway, I wonder if anyone else played back there or if anyone has photos of the hospital in operation OR abandoned??? Nothing left now but memories.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 06:06:03 +0000
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