Tranquille Asylum
| Tranquille Asylum | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Established | 1905 |
| Opened | 1907/1959 |
| Closed | 1984 |
| Current Status | Preserved |
| Building Style | Cottage Plan |
| Location | Kamloops, BC |
| Alternate Names |
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History
“Tranquille”, also referred to as Padova City, was the “King Edward VII Tuberculosis Sanatorium”. The area itself was named “Tranquille” after the Indian Chief “Sanquil”. Tuberculosis or consumption or the white plague, was an epidemic at turn-of-the-century. The land just outside Kamloops city limits, where the North and South Thompson meet and flow into Kamloops Lake, was purchased in 1905 and the tuberculosis hospital began taking patients by 1907. The site is approximately 191 acres and by the 1950s had at least 40 buildings. Tranquille was operated as a tuberculosis sanatorium from its inception until 1958 when it was closed.
The facility reopened in 1959 as a home for the mentally challenged, and was shut down permanently in 1984; a victim of government budget cuts. Tranquille has changed hands several times since then. In 1991, A&A Estates bought Tranquille, intending to turn the property into an Italian "homeland" called Padova City. But the project fell through a couple of years later. It has been envisioned as an exclusive resort and a small, completely self-sufficient, sustainable city.
Today it is an urban farm with plans to become a sustainable village community on Kamloops Lake
