The name of this building that was keeping this decades long secret is called the Converse building - but it's not named after the shoes - it was just named after the guy who owned the building at the time of it's construction in 1900: Thomas Briggs Converse Sr.
During the building's early years, it was home to a few healthcare businesses, including drugstores, doctors, & dentists. There were quite a few dentists that occupied the building over the course of the first half of the 20th century, so that actually makes a good bit of sense as to why so many teeth were hidden in the wall.
Dr. Clarence Whittington was the first to practice dentistry in the building when it first opened in 1900. Dr. Roy H Thomas was the dentist in the building from 1904 to 1905. Dr. Lucian Clive Holtzendorff had his office in the building from February 1905 to February 1908. By 1908, it was occupied by a Dr. Robert C Roberson.
The dentist who had the longest tenure in the building was Dr. Lester Grace Youmans. He was there from 1911 until sometime after 1940. Without a doubt, most of the teeth recently found would have to be from Dr. Youmans' practice. Some of the teeth could be from before Youmans started his practice. The buckets of teeth most likely represent his nearly 30 years practicing dentistry.
Dental regulations were MUCH different in those days than they are today. There weren't any set guidelines of disposing of teeth that dentists could follow, so different dentists disposed of the teeth in different ways: some trashed them, some actually used them to create dentures for other dental patients, and like one or more of the dentists that occupied the Converse building, some just tossed them in the wall. (Of course, they didn't know how unsanitary these practices were until later in the 20th century.)
I believe this may have actually been a common practice discussed in dental schools at the time, at least around Georgia; because this wasn't an isolated incident, as the exact same situation has been found in two other places in Georgia: Greensboro and Carrolton!
There's no telling how many other hidden stashes of teeth are in the walls of old buildings in different towns, and how many buildings that had the teeth (or other things) hidden within the walls, but was demolished without anyone ever finding them!
As for the Converse Building, Dr. Yeomans retired in the 1940s and Dr. William Henry Branch took over the office, but he didn't stay very long, as he moved his office to a location on Ashley Street. W. T. Grants used the office area for storage for a few years before the building became home to a retail store called "Mangel's Women clothing" in 1957, where it operated for 22 years until 1979.
The building is currently being renovated- that's how the teeth were found!
Jay Blanton | The Georgia Photography Fanatic
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