A grammar school built in the late 1800s stood here as Brownsville Public School, serving grades 1 through 8; around 1910, grades 9 through 12 were added, but when Haywood County started a high school, Brownsville Public School discontinued high school classes. Professor C.W. Anderson was principal for more than 30 years, and the school was destroyed by fire in the late 1920s. The Haywood County Memorial Hospital stood here from 1931 to 1974, given to the county by Mann Wills and Ridley Wills as a memorial to Dr. William T. Wills and his wife, Elizabeth Mann Wills. It opened as a 30-bed facility, and an addition built in 1963 increased it to 50 beds. A school of nursing operated from 1931 to 1941, and its graduates received degrees as RNs. A new hospital on North Washington opened in January 1974.