Shorewood Sanitarium
| Shorewood Sanitarium | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Opened | 1898 |
| Closed | 1978 |
| Current Status | Demolished |
| Building Style | Single Building |
| Location | Milwaukee, WI |
| Alternate Names |
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History
The Riverside/Shorewood sanitarium starts with the establishment in 1898 of a “Woman’s Hospital” for surgery by Dr. Frank Studley in one and eventually two houses on Humboldt Blvd. near Capital. With the influx of nervous and “hysteria” cases to this private 15-bed facility, the name changed two years later to Riverside Sanitarium. It became an “institution devoted to the care and treatment of mild mental and nervous diseases, insanity, alcohol and drug habitués and chronic invalids”. An early publication described it as a “quiet home-like retreat” with patient expense of “$10 per week upwards according to the case” and “within the means of every class, particularly of those whose only recourse is the County Hospital or the Insane Asylum.” The eight acres of wooded land surrounding the hospital had rustic paths, a quiet forest and a grand view from the west bank of the Milwaukee River – a place adapted to the care “of those requiring rest and quiet”. Routine treatment for the majority of cases consisted of “hydrotherapy, needle spray, massage, Swedish movements and exercise”.
The success of the sanitarium resulted in the construction by 1905 of a new three-story hospital on land bordered by Maryland, Edgewood, Prospect and Stafford Avenues. The main building consisted of 24 patient rooms, an office, lab, dining room and seven rooms on the top floor for employees.
Rapid expansion of the original building followed with construction of a second connecting building in 1907 with 10 additional patient rooms and then a third L-shaped building (the Annex) in 1911 with 20 more patient rooms. In 1930, the name of the institution was changed from Riverside Sanitarium to Shorewood Hospital-Sanitarium. The facility was sold to Columbia Hospital in 1969 and the word “sanitarium” was dropped from its title. The last patient left on June 1, 1978 and was charged an average daily room rate of $40. The property was finally sold to the City of Shorewood for 1.3 million dollars for future development.
