Winslow Sanatorium

Winslow Sanatorium
Established	1931
Construction Began	1932
Opened	1933
Closed	1948
Current Status	Closed
Building Style	Single Building
Architect(s)	McKee Company
Location	Winslow, AZ
Architecture Style	Adobe
Alternate Names	Hopi-Navajo Sanatorium

History

Part of a nationwide wave of funding to provide facilities for Native Americans suffering from tuberculosis in the 1930s, the Winslow Sanatorium was authorized by Congress in 1931. Construction was begun by a Texas company, McKee, in 1932 with the facility opening to its first patients from the Hopi and Navajo reservations in 1933. Registered as a hospital with the American Medical Association, it was officially known as Winslow Sanatorium. The following year operations were transferred from the federal government to the Navajo Health Authority, who operated it until it again became a federal facility under the Indian Health Service in 1948, when it fully became a general hospital.

Today, the former sanatorium building still stands as part of the Winslow Indian Health Care Center. Nearby are 417 largely unmarked graves dating to the sanatorium and inpatient hospital days, approximately 1933 to 1977. Efforts are ongoing to identify burials and protect the cemetery site from damage.