medical staff located in the same city. Piedmont patients, on the other hand, had to travel more than 50 miles to St. Phillips Hospital in Richmond, Virginia in the event of a non-tubercular medical emergency. Building Site Finding an acceptable site was an uphill battle. The Board of Health placed ads across the state for a site where a "colored sanatorium" could be built. The first location considered was in Ivor, Virginia. Local whites fiercely protested the facility, as recorded in the Aug. 24, 1916 State Board of Health minutes: While the negotiations [for the purchase of the property] were in progress, and before any papers were passed, a large number of protests began to come into the health department from citizens of Ivor, objecting seriously to the location of such an institution at that point. The Commissioner went down to Ivor and attempted to allay the feeling, without result. A number of the citizens had employed an attorney and a delegation bringing a large petition entered emphatic protest before the committee. The Piedmont Sanatorium committee then visited a site in Lynchburg, Virginia but received an even harsher response. According to The Tuberculosis Experience of African-Americans in Virginia, "any idea of such purchase was immediately abandoned." In 1917, the committee hired a real estate agent named Mr. Barnes to negotiate the purchase of a site in Burkeville, Virginia. This time, the committee asked a group of citizens from Burkeville to sign a statement which said that the sanatorium could be built there. Nonetheless, opposition emerged for a third time. An attorney named Mr. H.H. Watson wrote a letter to the committee on behalf of a group of citizens who opposed locating the sanatorium in Burkeville. Impatient with the delays, this time the State Board of Health ignored the opposition and began construction of Piedmont Sanatorium on a parcel in Burkeville. The Negro Organization Society continued to be heavily involved with the issue, from raising public awareness to donating funds to improve the facility. Bonds were issued "to erect and to equip one Building to be used for the patients and to include rooms for visiting Doctors who shall from time to time be invited for study to the Sanatorium." Daily life According to Gertz, "everything at Piedmont was hierarchically organized and routine". Patients were awakened every morning at 7:15 a.m. for breakfast. They then rested until lunch, had quiet time