This sprawling two-story Georgian Revival building was commissioned by the National Order of Railway Conductors as a retirement home. It opened to fourteen members of the Order who arrived from Illinois to live here, and welcomed all members as well as their wives and widows. A burial plot dedicated to the Brotherhood of Railway Conductors exists at Bonaventure Cemetery (17.1). The home had a grand entrance, sixty-seven bedrooms, thirty-six baths, a dining room, modern kitchen, and lounge. It closed in 1940 for lack of residents. In 1941, the United States Public Health Service converted the building into a research hospital for women, children, and victims of such diseases as syphilis. In 1945, after the discovery of penicillin, the facility was offered to Malaria Control in War Areas (MCWA), an organization that responded to the threat of disease in World War II’s Pacific theater—work that led to the formation in 1946 of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. The Savannah Board of Education was granted the property in 1971 and converted it to the wildlife center, Georgia’s first environmental education facility.