SOUTH TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) — Shauna Smith is working to preserve the history of the FAMU Hospital, a building that once played a central role in the city's Black community, from delivering babies to training the next generation of healthcare workers.
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Smith, who was born in the hospital, launched a project called "Born on the Hill" (BOTH) with a goal of finding people who worked, learned, or were born in the hospital before more of the people who lived this history are gone.
"I hope the impact will have you feel a sense of ownership," Smith said. "Oftentimes, we feel I'm just a regular person. I'm a regular Joe. I don't have anything to contribute. I don't have any significance, and you do."
Smith is planning the first-ever BOTH event for September 2027, driven by her belief that fewer and fewer people remember the hospital and the history behind it.
She hopes those who do will be able to share their stories and help preserve this part of Tallahassee's history.
For some, the connection to the hospital is deeply personal. Celeste Brickler Hart says the hospital has always been part of her family's life.
"I was born there in June of '52, and my grandfather practiced there. My father and my grandfather practiced there," Brickler Hart said.
Na'im Akbar was also born at the hospital and says the hospital's significance extends beyond individual families.
"People came from all over the state to the Hill to get their education, so that was the educational center of the entire state of Florida for Black people. You know, that's not told in the story," Akbar said.
Alexander Brickler, who worked in the hospital's student clinic during his medical school summers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, reflected on what the institution represented.
"The essence of FAMU still exists in all of us, and we know what a prideful thing it was to have a black-owned, black-run hospital. It helped people realize what was possible," Brickler said.
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