Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium

The Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium was located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Founded in 1915, it was a municipal organization which included a sanatorium, dispensaries, and other auxiliary agencies essential in the control of tuberculosis. The sanitarium was the largest municipal sanitarium in the country and had a capacity of 950 beds.^[1]

History

In 1911, the city of Chicago bought 158 acres to establish the sanitarium in what is now the North Park Village Nature Center. It operated from 1915 through the 1970s. Dr. Theodore B. Sachs was its first president.^[2] Dr. J. Robert Thompson served as chief of laboratories from 1945 to 1970.^[3]

By the 1950s and 1960s, the disease incidence was drastically reduced through improved public hygiene, vaccines and antimicrobial drugs. When the sanitarium became under-used by the 1970s, the city of Chicago decided to redevelop the property as North Park Village, to include senior citizen housing, a school for the developmentally disabled, a nature preserve, and parkland. In 1977, the Chicago Park District began leasing and re-developing the site.^[4]

Geography

It occupied a 0.5 miles (0.80 km) square in the extreme northwest section of the city, at the corner of North Crawford and Bryn Mawr Avenues. There was a special service entrance at Peterson Avenue. The work of improving the grounds was done under the direction of O. C. Simonds & Company, Landscape Gardeners. A broad stretch of ground was reserved for farming and gardening.

The grounds were divided into two sections: the south section reserved for the cottages for ambulant women patients; the north section, for men. East of the Administration building were the dining halls, one for men patients and another for women patients. Nearby were a group of Infirmary buildings with a capacity of about 300 beds. The power house and laundry building were at the extreme eastern point. The Open Air Cottages for ambulant men and women patients formed two separate groups of buildings. Of the initial 28 cottages, 20 were for adults and 8 for children with the total capacity of about 380 beds. An additional 12 cottages were added at a later time, increasing the number of beds for ambulant cases to 650. The Nurses' Building, the garage, farmhouse and barns were located elsewhere on the grounds.

References

The article incorporates text from Theodore Bernard Sachs' "The Municipal Control of Tuberculosis in Chicago: City of Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium, Its History and Provisions. To the Mayor and the City Council of the Ciy of Chicago" (1915), now in the public domain."

1. ^ Sachs, Theodore B. (1915). "Provision for Infants in Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium". JAMA LXIV (1). http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/LXIV/1/72.2.extract. 
2. ^ "Timeline of significant milestones in the development of Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago". Respiratory Health Association. http://www.lungchicago.org/timeline/. Retrieved 18 August 2011. 
3. ^ Heise, Kenan (September 26, 1992). "Dr. J. Robert Thompson, Pathologist". Chicago Tribune. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1992-09-26/news/9203270697_1_pathologist-oak-park-james-r-thompson. Retrieved 18 August 2011. 
4. ^ "Peterson Park". chicagoparkdistrict.com. http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/parks.detail/object_id/433b5e34-bd4e-4fe5-a74e-81dedbacc96d.cfm. Retrieved 18 August 2011.