From These Roots

There was not a clinic on campus until the late 1950s when Rose Clayton was hired by Dr. Donnan, the college president, as the new campus nurse. At first, Nurse Clayton lived in a small apartment in the middle floor of the old auditorium with her son, Neves, and the school set up a room for her to use as an exam room. Prior to this, there were school nurses, but they did not have a dedicated place in which to work. When Turner Auditorium was completed in 1958, the music department moved out of the middle floor of the old auditorium and Nurse Clayton was able to take over their former space. She converted her new area into a clinic using beds purchased from Greer Hospital at $.50 each.

Nurse Clayton used the auditorium space to treat the campus community until 1966 when plans were put into place to build a new clinic. The groundbreaking ceremony was held June 13, 1966, with construction beginning the next day. Nurse Clayton participated in the groundbreaking ceremony and was the first nurse to occupy the new clinic. Foster Construction Company of Greenville was chosen to build the design made by Lillard, Westmoreland, and McGarity Architects of Spartanburg.

The clinic was a t-shaped building with three two-bed patient rooms, a lobby area, a nurse’s office, a doctor’s office, an isolation room, two small exam rooms, and storage space. At the back of the building, there was a nurse’s apartment with two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a large dining room. The outside of the clinic was brick with an interior of terrazzo floors and plaster walls. The building cost was estimated to be $88,500 and the completion date was set for October 1966.

The dedication service was held in January 1967. The clinic was named Tuttle Clinic in honor of Elsie Tuttle who was an instructor at North Greenville from 1938-1965. Miss Tuttle taught various subjects including geology, geography, sociology, and government. In addition to teaching, Miss Tuttle was the faculty sponsor of the Sociology Club, the Honorary Social Science Society (later called Sigma Tau Sigma), and organized the World Wide Interest Club. Miss Tuttle attended the dedication service and unveiled the plaque featuring her name and dates of service.

The clinic served students’ medical needs until 2017 when it was permanently closed. It was determined at the time that students had other resources available such as CVS Minute Clinics and urgent care centers so a clinic on the campus was no longer needed. In 2019, the Tuttle Clinic was renovated to house IT Services. The repurposed facility provides more than 4,300 square feet of space for a variety of operations including Network and Desktop Services, Information Systems and Business Applications, Administration, and a contemporary Help Desk for the campus. In 2020, a house on 111 West Crain was renovated to house the NGU Clinic and Counseling Services to provide both health and mental services for the NGU community.