The Georgia Lunatic Asylum, now Central State Hospital, was the fifth oldest institution exclusively for the insane in the South and the fourteenth in the nation. It cared for afflicted paupers in Georgia as well as others from Georgia and elsewhere who could pay $100 a year for clothing, room-and-board, and medical care. Its female convalescent building was erected in 1883 and once mirrored the Walker Building across the Pecan Grove. In 1949, the back portion of the building was torn down and a modern auditorium was erected, while the front portion was preserved because its cornerstone bears the hospital's original name. The auditorium remains in use for dances, meetings, nursing school graduations, staff training, and community events. Cases cited from the hospital included a 22-year-old white female pay patient who had been mentally ill for 8 years and was described as indecent and immodest with ulcerated legs and other somewhat minor complaints, with some improvement, and a 23-year-old female described as "lunatic and epileptic," whose epileptic convulsions seemed to follow disappointment in love and who was violent, hostile, and subject to auditory and visual hallucinations.