Too small to meet the demand, the commission searched for a new location. The property was only about 2.5 acres with 97 feet of beach. This treatment was known as “heliotherapy.” Maher and associates planned a sanatorium on the coast, and by 1918, the first campus opened at the former White Beach Hotel in East Lyme. Research showed children with the bone and glandular forms fared best in places with exposure to sunlight and the breezy, fresh air typical of the oceanfront. Maher, head of Connecticut’s Tuberculosis Commission and a New Haven physician, campaigned to get children with non-pulmonary tuberculosis into separate institutions. There were four such sanatoriums in Connecticut by 1930-one each in Hartford, Norwich, Shelton, and Meriden.Īround 1905, Dr. Some medical professionals believed the best solution was to separate tuberculosis patients and offer them bed rest and proper nutrition in places that seemed like large country homes. Variants included a glandular form that aggravated the lymphatic system. ![]() In children, a version crippled the body and attacked the bones. Tuberculosis was the leading killer in Connecticut by the early 20th century, even before illnesses such as cancer, and caused an estimated 1 out of every 20 funerals. The Tuberculosis ThreatĪs industrialization progressed in the West, tuberculosis became a significant health concern and overcrowded cities allowed the illness to spread. But at its height, the former tuberculosis sanatorium (later institution for the mentally disabled) boasted of a nationally innovative treatment with natural methods at an architecturally and environmentally splendid facility, the first of its kind in the United States. After failed attempts at restoration, the buildings remain in disrepair. Few residents aside from locals are aware of this early 20th-century tuberculosis hospital (turned scenic park) and its significance.
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