LibGuides: State Institutions: Tuberculosis Hospitals

About Tuberculosis Hospitals

California
Oregon

The State of California and several counties operated tuberculosis hospitals, which treated patients suffering from this highly contagious disease that for many years was a major public health threat in the state. Among these institutions are:

Barlow Respiratory Hospital
Established in 1902 in Los Angeles, CA. Originally a tuberculosis sanatorium, Barlow Respiratory Hospital is a long-term acute care facility and a regional weaning center in Los Angeles that specializes in weaning chronically critically ill patients from mechanical ventilation and also treats respiratory diseases and related secondary ailments. The hospital treats approximately 900 patients a year and specializes in ventilator weaning.
Bromley Sanitarium
Established in 1909 in Sonora, CA by Dr. Robert Innis Bromley. It was sold several times. Demolished in 1959.
El Sausal Sanitarium
Established around 1922 in Salinas, CA.
Hassler Health Farm (San Francisco Health Farm)
Established in 1927 in San Carlos, CA. was a tuberculosis sanatorium for patients of the San Francisco Bay Area, owned by the City of San Francisco.After the discovery of antibiotics, tuberculosis became a reduced threat, leading the building to be converted into a hospital for the poor. It was closed in 1972 and sat empty until 1985, when the buildings were demolished.[
Las Encinas Sanitarium for Nervous Disorders
Established in 1904 in Pasadena, CA. Dr. James H. McBride established his new sanitarium purchasing 29 acres of the Sunny Slope Ranch for $27,000, he and four other prominent doctors, Norman Bridge, Henry Brainerd, Wallace Barlow, and Merritt Campbell, formed the Southern California Sanitarium for Nervous Disorders.In 1917, the name of the hospital was changed to the Las Encinas Hospital for Nervous Disorders.As the cottages drifted into a quaint backdrop, the sanitarium became Barlow Respiratory Hospital and added buildings, including a small acute-care facility. It also expanded its focus to lung disorders of various kinds. For a time, part of the facility was used as an AIDS hospice.
La Vina Sanitarium
Established in 1909 in Altadena, California. La Vina, as it was generally known, was a prominent nonprofit respiratory disease hospital. It averaged 50 to 60 patients including many children. After World War I, it took care of disabled veterans with tuberculosis and those whose lungs were damaged by wartime gas attacks.
Olive View Sanitarium
Established in 1920 in Los Angeles, CA.as care facility for TB patients. In 1962 the San Fernando Valley's first successful open-heart surgery was performed there. As medical science conquered tuberculosis and Olive View was no longer needed for that purpose, it aligned with the UCLA School of Medicine and became Olive View Medical Center, an 888-bed teaching hospital that opened in December 1970. Six weeks later, the 6.6-magnitude San Fernando-Sylmar Earthquake of Feb. 9, 1971 (which epicenter was in the Iron Canyon section of Sand Canyon in Santa Clarita) felled the hospital's four stairwell wings and its parking structure. The rest of the facility was damaged beyond repair; it was demolished in 1973.
Paradise Valley Hospital California
Established in 1904 in National City, California. it is a 291-bed acute care facility. It began operation in 1904 as a sanitarium and is currently under the ownership and operation of Prime Healthcare Services, a hospital management company located in Ontario, CA. Paradise Valley Hospital is the largest private employer in National City, with a workforce of approximately 1,200 employees.
Rockhaven Sanitarium
Established in 1881 in Crescenta Valley, California. The sanitarium for which it is named was opened in 1923 by psychiatric nurse Agnes Richards as a private mental health institution for women with mild mental and nervous disorders.[1] The property was added to the National Register of Historic Places in June 2016 and in 2021 it was announced that it would be developed into a museum.
Sierra Madre Villa
Established in 1887 in Pasadena, CA. As the name implies, is a home-like resort for invalids and for such ap need rest from nervous exhaustion.

The State of Oregon and several counties operated tuberculosis hospitals, which treated patients suffering from this highly contagious disease that for many years was a major public health threat in the state. Among these institutions are:

Blackburn Sanitarium
Established in 1912 in Klamath Falls, OR by Alex J. Lylle as a medical facility. . It was one of the first buildings in Klamath Falls to be geothermally heated. In 1929, after Lyle's death, the sanitarium, then known as Klamath General Hospital, was sold to Dr. Hunt, and public hospital services were consolidated at Valley Hospital
Hot Lake Sanitorium
Established in 1917 in Hot Lake, OR. Hot Lake Hotel (also known as Hot Lake Resort) is a historic Colonial Revival hotel originally built in 1864 in Hot Lake, Union County, Oregon, United States.[3][4] The hotel received its namesake from the thermal spring lakes on the property, and operated as a luxury resort and sanitorium during the turn of the century, advertising the medicinal attributes of the mineral water and drawing visitors worldwide. It is also the first known commercial building in the world to utilize geothermal energy as its primary heat source.
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After a fire burned down over half of the hotel in 1934, the remaining building was used for various purposes, including a retirement home, asylum, and a nurse's training school during World War II. After that, operations were intermittent under various owners before the building's abandonment in 1991. The hotel and surrounding structures were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.[2]

Today, it is operated as a bed and breakfast, museum, and spa. Prior owners included future governor Walter M. Pierce and former state senator Parish L. Willis.[6]
Oregon State Tuberculosis Hospital
Established in 1905 in Salem, OR. The Oregon State Tuberculosis Hospital, in Salem, OR, began admitting patients in 1910 and later merged with the University of Oregon Medical School State Tuberculosis Hospital. The collection contains reports, birth certificate books, admissions and discharges, scrapbooks, photographs, and correspondence.
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Operated 1920-1960.
Portland Open-Air Sanatorium
Established in 1905 in Milwaukie Heights, Oregon. It took and took “incipient and advanced cases” with a capacity of 40, and rates from $10 to $30 a week. It was the first sanatorium for the treatment of tuberculosis to be established in Oregon. The state needed a bigger facility and transferred the patients.
University Tuberculosis Hospital
Established in 1939 in Portland, Oregon. In 1910 the Oregon State Tuberculosis Hospital had only 50 beds available; in 1917 there were 75 beds in operation. In 1919 construction of Pavilion Butler brought the bed count up to 105, and construction of Pavilion C in 1923 made 150 beds available. In 1923 a modern paved highway extended from Salem to the hospital, and additional facilities in Pavilion D made 195 available beds for the treatment and care of the tubercular. As the need for beds was so much greater than the facilities available a modern two-story hospital was completed in 1932; in 1933, 15 extra beds were placed in the Administration Building for a colony of patients who had reached a satisfactory stage of convalescence.
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During this fifty-year period 8,050 new patients were admitted to the Oregon State Tuberculosis Hospital; also 25%, or at least 2,000 of these persons, were re-admitted for further hospitalization and treatment. Through the hospitalization of these many persons, the hospital had an active part in assisting over 8,000 residents of the State of Oregon regain their health, and helped them return to their homes and communities as active citizens. There were an estimated 3,600 employees of the Oregon State Tuberculosis Hospital to serve 8,050 patients.

State Institutions: Tuberculosis Hospitals

About Tuberculosis Hospitals

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