Intended to be a museum, it's an eyesore

Remember this place? I ran across it earlier this week when I was out shooting pictures for Preservation of Wilson. It's the last remaining section of the Wilson Collegiate Institute, which became a Confederate military hospital during the Civil War. The original building stood on Green Street, if my memory is correct (I can't find any documentation online). Built sometime before the Civil War as Wilson Female Seminary, it housed wounded soldiers, many of whom died and were buried in a mass grave in Maplewood Cemetery. In 1872, it became Wilson Collegiate Institute and educated, among others, future Gov. Charles B. Aycock and newspaper publisher Josephus Daniels, according to the city's Web site. Around 1898, the large structure was divided into six houses, and the section depicted in the photo above is the last remaining segment.

This section stood on Oak Avenue. I've been told that graffiti left by Confederate patients is still visible on the rafters. For more than a decade, a small group of Wilsonians fought to prevent demolition of the dilapidated and abandoned structure and then to move it to a more suitable location, where it could be used as a history museum. Several years ago (a Wilson Times online archives search turned up no references to this event), the unit was moved to its current location on Goldsboro Street near the CSX railroad tracks. Emilie English, a tireless proponent of preserving the old building, led a group from United Daughters of the Confederacy that succeeded against the odds to save and move the building. Unfortunately, the group exhausted its funds with the expensive move, and no efforts have been made to restore the structure. English is now in a nursing home.

The historic building is an eyesore in an area where individuals have begun restoring some of the old mansions in the Woodard Circle area. City Council Thursday night postponed a request from the Community Health Center to turn over the city's old fire station (recently used as Hope Station) to the clinic because some local residents wanted to see the old station become a museum. The building pictured here was also intended to be a museum. The Wilson Collegiate Institute is one of the more historic buildings in Wilson, but without an expensive restoration, it will be nothing more than an eyesore.

Without a persistent and determined champion like Emilie English, the building's future is far dimmer than its past.