We had a great time yesterday on the tour of the grounds of the former Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium on the North Side of Chicago. Perfect day for walking in the footsteps of local history and discovering the beauty that was hidden behind the green fence from 1915 to 1974. Our group included some longtime blog readers, plus former residents of the area who contributed their recollections. It was a lot of fun and we’ll do it again in the spring, if you missed this one. The MTS grounds tour is a free program offered through the North Park Village Nature Center. We appreciate using their cozy meeting room to gather our group.
Some good questions came up. One participant asked how long did people stay at the sanitarium. I was told by one former patient that she stayed for two years. A doctor told me that one patient in 1960 had lived there for 30 years.
The administration building is in the background as we view the men’s dining hall from the south-facing side of the building. Today these buildings are connected by an above-ground tunnel, an addition made after the sanitarium was renovated for its current use for senior apartments.
We confirmed that patients could not leave voluntarily if they tested positive for TB. One participant mentioned that even today, local (not sure if that is Chicago or Cook County) hospitals have the legal right to retain patients who test positive for TB.
We had to take a detour and pass by one of the highlights of the tour, a remnant of the covered tunnel that connected all the buildings. This buck was chasing a doe and looked like he meant business. He’s standing right next to the paved walkway that covered the underground tunnel. You can see the decorative brick border just under the buck’s head. These tunnels connected all the main buildings of the sanitarium and were used by staff to travel between buildings in bad weather and to transport laundry and food carts.
The Peterson Park fieldhouse was added after the sanitarium opened in 1915. It served as the morgue. I don’t know what year this was built, but I wonder if it was built around the same time as the auditorium. Both buildings have a white decorative border just under the roof, and no other surviving buildings have this treatment. Again, note all the windows; every structure at the sanitarium was designed to provide fresh air for the benefit of both staff and patients.
This is the south-facing side of the service building, where the receiving dock was located.
We also commented on the expert craftsmenship so clearly visible on these buildings. Although the architects’ plan was considered simple at the time, in efforts to appear that they were not wasting taxpayers’ money on a fancy design, to our eyes the buildings look beautiful and highly detailed. Decorative terra cotta tiles, seen above the door on the left, are used on many of the buildings. Some of the tiles depict the Chicago “Y” symbol, while others show animals. The rounded window on the left looks out from the former men’s dining hall.
Unless families of deceased patients made other arrangements, all burials took place at Montrose Cemetery, across from the Sanitarium’s entrance at Pulaski and Bryn Mawr. Coincidentally, the landscape designer for both the Sanitarium and Montrose Cemetery was O.C. Simonds & Company. Simonds also designed much of Graceland Cemetery and Morton Arboretum.
In the background is the H-shaped infirmary buildings. The building on the right side was the hospital, which provided all types of medical and surgical treatments to TB patients, and included a maternity ward and nursery. On the left is the men’s wing, where patients who were confined to bedrest were housed. The above-ground tunnel was added after the sanitarium was closed.
It’s amazing that this corner of Chicago has so many connections with major events and people in Chicago history.
Frances Archer and Jim Cash on the tour of the former Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium grounds.
Photography credits: Thank you to Jim Cash, pictured here with me, for documenting the tour and giving me permission to share his photographs. All photographs except the first one are courtesy of Jim.
Acknowledgements: I greatly appreciate all of you who attended the tour and those of you who take time to participate in this blog. It is a group effort. By sharing our individual memories, we all learn more about the place where we came from.
I cannot wait to take this tour in the spring!
Thanks, Chris. Looking forward to doing it again.
Sorry to have missed the tour. I am very interested in learning of the history.
Is there any way of learning the names of the patients? Years 1945-1946.
Thank you—hope to take part in the next tour !
Judith, Sorry, I don’t know if the records were stored or where. I hope you can join us on the next tour. I will add your name to my list to notify you when we set a date.
In the mid 1980′s my mother won a lottery for an apartment in the Petersen Park Fieldhouse. The walkout doors to her apartment are visible at the right edge of the picture. She lived there until she died in 1996. At one point she was the vice president of her floor & had a lot of fun doing that job. We visited her on Sundays, but never got to see the nature center because it was closed on Sundays. A friend of mine lives a short distance from the complex, & on several occasions has called me while walking his Beagles through the woods. He is ever on the alert for Coyotes, as I’m sure my mother would have been.
I really appreciate your blog posts about the MTS. My father was in one of their facilities in the mid 1950s when he was 8 years old, but not this main one because he was too young. His facility was at California and 31st Streets. He said it was a horrible place and that the top 3 floors of the 5 floor facility were abandoned. It sounds more like a prison than a children’s hospital. I am having trouble finding any information or pictures of that location. He said that as of about 10 years ago it was still standing and doesn’t know if it still is. Have you come across anything referring to that place?
Hi, Jacqueline. I don’t have the information on hand right now, but I can look it up and I will post information on my blog that is devoted just to remembering the Municipal TB Sanitarium. http://chicagomts.wordpress.com/ There were a number of facilities around the city. However, this sanitarium did take babies and infants and was the first facility in the United States to have a nursery. But it may have been fully occupied when you father was young. There was often a waiting list.
Before they tore down the guardhouse (which was about a quarter of a mile from the now-fieldhouse on what was turned into a trail in the nature center) I explored it with a few friends. In retrospect 11-year-old kids should not have been wandering in, the place was filled with graffiti and probably none too stable. I found a petrified rat and what looked like a large pile of hair trimmings. We were too scared to try the stairs to the second floor, which is surely for the best.
Carrie, a number of people have told me about exploring the grounds after the Sanitarium was closed. You’re right, it should have been better secured. They did have a barber shop on the premises; I wonder if that’s what you found.
Ms. Archer – You are my first point of contact. I am trying to get information about my one and only first cousin. Her name was Mable Armstrong and she was at the Tuberculosis hospital in the mid-1960′s. I’m attempting a geneology of our family and can find neither hide nor hair of her existence. I believe she passed away in the late 1960′s. All of her maternal parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles (my dad, James Milam, and uncle, Robert Milan) are deceased. Her mother’s name was Lilly Love (nee Milam), I believe Mable’s birth name was Sterling. Can you just direct me as to where I can find information about her. All I have of her is an old polaroid snapshot and a letter or two where she had written to me on April 7, 1967 from the Sanitarium.
Margaret, I’m unable to provide much help. One of the areas that I haven’t been able to cover relating to the Sanitarium’s history is what happened to patient records. Given that it closed in 1974, the records would all have been paper files. The Chicago Department of Health might be a better first step, although keep in mind they did not run the Sanitarium. Good luck with your search.
Thank you so much. At least it’s a start. I’m now close to the 65 mark, retired and have time to start my searches.
If you’d like, I can keep you abreast of any information I get.
Again, my thanks to you.
Yes, please stay in touch and I’ll let you know if I hear anything.