Built in 1921 by Doctors Samuel, Thaddeus, and Bowman Wise, sons of Dr. Burr T. and Laura Addy Wise, early settlers of Plains, Wise Sanitarium was an innovative hospital known as “the Mayo Clinic of the South.” The hospital originally opened above Plains Pharmacy in 1912 with 15 beds, moved to the second floor of the A. C. Wellons building on Main Street in 1917 with 20 beds, and in 1921 occupied this building with 60 beds, an operating room, and an X-Ray room with radium treatment capability. Black patients were treated in a separate building to the rear of the main building. It was one of the first small hospitals in the state to be accredited by the American College of Surgeons and the American Medical and Hospital Association, and it also served as an accredited training school for nurses, where Lillian Gordy Carter received her nurse training. Jimmy Carter, son of Earl and Lillian Carter, was born here on October 1, 1924, and he was the first President of the United States to be born in a hospital. After a fire damaged the building on January 21, 1936, Dr. Sam and Dr. Thad relocated their practice to Americus and Dr. Bowman opened an office in Plains.