The Piedmont Geriatric Hospital was originally known as the Piedmont Sanatorium. It was the first tuberculosis sanatorium for the treatment of African Americans in the country. It served in this capacity from 1917 to 1965. Shortly after it opened the Piedmont Sanatorium School of Tuberculosis Nursing was established on site providing African American women with a two year nursing program. In 1965, African American tuberculosis patients were moved to a newly integrated Blue Ridge Sanatorium in Charlottesville. In 1967 the site was converted to the Piedmont Geriatric Hospital. The campus contains significant buildings and structures from its establishment period as well as modernist resources including the main hospital and nurses dormitory by architect Joseph Saunders.
To satisfy mitigation requirements associated with approval of new construction on the campus, Hanbury Preservation Consulting surveyed the proposed historic district. The survey involved reviewing previous survey efforts and entering earlier data into the VCRIS system, photographing and mapping all resources, and preparing survey data for twelve previously undocumented resources. Additionally revised district boundaries were proposed to incorporate properties within an extended period of significance and exclude recent construction.