By the time the Adventists opened their new Sanitarium in the old
Glendale Hotel in 1905, all 50 rooms were booked by patients.
They came for a course of treatment described in an early brochure
as "a thoroughgoing application of hydrotherapy, phototherapy,
thermotherapy, massage, Swedish movements, Swedish gymnastics,
electrotherapy, open-air treatments, and physical culture guided by
the exact findings of bacteriological, chemical, microscopical and
other accurate methods of examination and pathological research."
Although the treatments sounded very clinical, the goal was to
return to natural methods of treating people. "The real purpose of
the institution is to return to nature -- to get as far as possible
from the artificial and deleterious customs of the day. Simplicity,
naturalness and wholesomeness of diet is the rule,"' the brochure
stated.
This method of treatment proved to be very popular; most patients
stayed for more than a month at a time and, as word of mouth grew, so
did the waiting list to get a room.
The sanitarium used the climate to bring in patients. An
advertisement in the Pacific Monthly of February 1912 said "there is
no real winter in Glendale. All the delights of the summer season are
enjoyed the year around at the Southern California health resort. An
equable but invigorating climate, which is strongly conducive to
health development."
Another advertising method was printing a variety of brochures and
postcards bearing the image of the elaborate, Victorian-style
structure.
Colored postcards of the Sanitarium building and brochures
describing the rest cure went wherever Adventist congregations built
churches, hospitals and missions. Because of their extensive
activities, the sanitarium was known throughout the United States and
many foreign countries.
Within a few years, the sanitarium outgrew its site in the old
hotel on Broadway. Administrators purchased another acre and expanded
the facility to 100 beds, but even that was not adequate. Not only
was the building too small, the city had grown up around it and
destroyed the quiet atmosphere needed for the popular cure.
In 1924, the hospital moved to a five-story building on nearly 30
acres on East Wilson Avenue, then far from town.
The facility was dedicated in March. Within days, a wrecking crew
began demolition of the old hotel on Broadway. The wrecking company
paid less than $2,000 for the building materials, substantially less
than the $60,000 cost of building the hotel in 1887.
* KATHERINE YAMADA is a volunteer with the Special Collections
Room at Central Library. To reach her, leave a message at 637-3241.
The Special Collections Room is open from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. Saturdays
or by appointment. For more information on Glendale's history,
contact the reference desk at the Central Library at 548-2027.
