Difference between revisions of "Princeton Sanatorium"

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| closed = 1910 (as a sanatorium)
 
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| current_status = [[Closed Institution|Closed]]
| building_style = [[Cottage Planned Institutions|Cottage Plan]]
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| building_style = [[Single Building Institutions|Single Building]]
 
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==History==
 
==History==
The 70 acres that belonged to Rockwood were purchased July 30, 1907 for $2,500 by Drs Thomas J. Beasley and Harvey A. Moore who planned to produce the finest treatment for tuberculosis patients which was a serious disease at the time. About 20 physicians and Merchants National Bank in Indianapolis were financial backers of this enterprise as everyone saw this as a breakthrough method of treating TB. At the age of 26, Dr. Beasley was director and president of Rockwood and he was already well-known in the early 1900s for his successful treatment of TB.
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January 24,1907 Princeton Sanatorium formally opened its doors at 419 West State Street, Princeton, IN. Doctors R. S. Anderson, Frank Blair, and A. L. Ziliak were the original owners of the hospital, which was equipped to care for 20 patients. The cost for the building at that time was $30,000. August 1910 Princeton Sanatorium closed the doors. Fall 1917 Sanatorium purchased with funds raised by public spirited citizens. Building and $10,000 given to the Methodist Hospital Corporation, which operated it with a local Board of Trustees as a branch of the large hospital in Indianapolis.  
  
Patients at Rockwood endured the cold winters living in small unheated cottages with “window sides,” that were opened while patients slept. The idea being the cold fresh air was important to treat the disease. The accepted practice of the time was to send patients to hot, dry, western states and Dr. Beasley as saw this as too outlandish. His idea was to treat patients in the climate in which it was originally contracted and he thought the clean country air in Avon was a perfect place for treatment.
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February 10, 1962 The new $2 million plus hospital was completed and the patients were moved from the West State Street address to its present address of 1808 Sherman Drive.
 
 
Rockwood produced nearly all its own food and patients were provided full, balanced meals plus extra meals of raw eggs and fruit. All the vegetables, meat, and dairy products including the maple syrup came from the rich farmlands in the “White Lick Valley,” which Rockwood owned. Ice for summer use was cut from Whitelick Creek and stored in sawdust. Charges for a double cottage were $18 a week and $25 a week for a private cottage.
 
 
 
The initial mortality rate of TB patients at Rockwood was extremely high; 34.9 per cent died in a one-month period. Those statistics couldn’t have helped the sanitarium’s reputation. Around the same time  new drugs and vaccines made recovery quicker and the need for long therapy the sanitarium provided was lessening by 1910. So advances in treatments doomed Rockwood’s success and it closed it’s doors and was sold in 1913 just  6 years after is opened.
 
 
 
After it closed in 1913 Charles and Violet Isaacs purchased the property west of CR 625E which has the original three-story building that was the recreation center and living quarters for Rockwood’s interns, nurses and servants. The building was a mess and they lived in the servants quarters while they fixed the home and added the south and north wings of the current home. Most of the cottages were purchased and moved off the property but 2 old outbuildings are still there on what is now a 3 acre lot.
 
  
  
 
[[Category:Indiana]]
 
[[Category:Indiana]]
[[Category:Cottage Plan]]
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[[Category:Single Building Institutions]]
[[Category:Preserved Institution]]
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[[Category:Closed Institution]]

Latest revision as of 21:54, 30 July 2013

Princeton Sanatorium
Opened 1907
Closed 1910 (as a sanatorium)
Current Status Closed
Building Style Single Building
Alternate Names



History[edit]

January 24,1907 Princeton Sanatorium formally opened its doors at 419 West State Street, Princeton, IN. Doctors R. S. Anderson, Frank Blair, and A. L. Ziliak were the original owners of the hospital, which was equipped to care for 20 patients. The cost for the building at that time was $30,000. August 1910 Princeton Sanatorium closed the doors. Fall 1917 Sanatorium purchased with funds raised by public spirited citizens. Building and $10,000 given to the Methodist Hospital Corporation, which operated it with a local Board of Trustees as a branch of the large hospital in Indianapolis.

February 10, 1962 The new $2 million plus hospital was completed and the patients were moved from the West State Street address to its present address of 1808 Sherman Drive.