EDITOR'S NOTE: In the Aug. 12 edition, Joe Holt was indirectly quoted as saying Pine Heights was condemned when he bought the historic property in 1993. According to Steve Smith, the city's superintendent of building standards, there is no record of the property being condemned. North Augusta Today regrets the error.
Joe Holt returned Pine Heights to its medical roots after he bought the towering, three-story building on Georgia Avenue in 1993.
Holt said the house needed work and had been on the market for four years when he bought it for $110,000. He spent years making repairs and has recaptured some of the former sanatorium's original glory.
"I bought it to try to bring back an element of the community," he said. "If you make an investment like this, you invest in the community."
The home was built in 1898 as a sanatorium for guests of the Hampton Terrace Hotel, which burned in 1916.
It served by turns as the hotel for a time, the spring training headquarters for the Detriot Tigers, and a private residence until 1993.
That's when Joe Holt bought it and turned it back into a medical complex, he said.
He established The Family Center on the first floor.
The Family Center offers counseling to families and children on a variety of issues including domestic violence and substance abuse.
The 10,000 square-foot-building is the only structure still in existence that was directly connected to the Hampton Terrace.
"When the Rockefellers and the Firestones came here to vacation, they would bring their sick relatives," said owner Joe Holt.
An original nurse's call box still hangs on the wall in the central hallway, right next to the city's first telephone booth.
Holt said because the house was built as a hospital, it had 12 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms and no reception hall.
Guests waited in one of the two rooms on the left of the central hallway while patients were brought in to visit.
The rooms on the right of the central hall were hospital rooms.
The second floor of the building now contains two apartments; a one-bedroom efficiency and a three bedroom apartment with the second-story balcony.
The third floor contains a two-bedroom apartment and a breathtaking view of Augusta.
"When the leaves are gone (in winter), I can see all the way from Bush Field to Evans," Holt said.
Reach Lisa Kaylor at lisa.kaylor@northaugustatoday.com.
Pine Heights at NO time was ever condemned. Please have Dr. Holt produce documentation to back up this claim.
Hate to burst your bubble Mr. Retired 07 but since you were not there when the inspection of the building took place and it was determined by the code enforcement office that ALL wiring and ALL plumbing had to be replaced and brought up to code that brought the label you are complaining about. Plus the fact that there was sewage found in the walls. The piles of the construction debris was as large as the house. Those are facts so quit calling my husband's office please.