Portal:Featured Article Of The Week
Featured Article Of The Week
Oregon State Tuberculosis Hospital
The first sanatorium in the Pacific Northwest was opened on Milwaukie Heights in 1905. However, those who were not financially able remained neglected. A state facility was needed, and finally the abandoned Deaf-Mute School in Salem was purchased to accommodate the Oregon State Tuberculosis Hospital, the first state owned and operated tuberculosis sanatorium in the West.
In 1909 the Oregon State Legislature enacted laws designating that a tuberculosis sanatorium was to be operated to provide treatment for tuberculosis patients who were unable to secure proper care elsewhere, where patients were to be educated in the proper techniques of healthful living and how to avoid spreading the disease and also to segregate those in the advanced state of the disease to eliminate the danger of infection. This was the first such action taken by any of the Western states.
Prior to this, in 1894, construction was started on a building designated to be the Oregon State Deaf-Mute School, and was so occupied during the years of 1896 and 1897, but because of the inability to transport supplies over the nearly non-existent roads this building southeast of Salem was abandoned. After the Legislature enacted the laws for a sanatorium for treatment of the tubercular, one of the senators of that time saw this site, nestled in the foothills with available buildings, and action was taken to utilize this for the proposed Oregon State Tuberculosis Hospital. Click here for more...
