Oregon State Tuberculosis Hospital

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Oregon State Tuberculosis Hospital was a public tuberculosis sanatorium in Salem, Oregon. It opened in 1905 and was the first public TB sanatorium on the West Coast. The main building, built in 1894, had previously housed the Oregon State Deaf-Mute School from 1896 to 1897. The hospital grounds covered about 149 acres and later many cottages were added.

A private TB sanatorium had opened in Milwaukie Heights near Portland in 1905, but it was too small for the growing number of patients. In 1910 Oregon required public medical care for tuberculosis, and patients from Milwaukie Heights were moved to Salem. The Oregon State Tuberculosis Hospital admitted its first five patients on November 21, 1910, with 50 beds.

H. J. Clement was superintendent in 1910–1911. Beginning in 1919, three pavilions were built on the grounds. The bed count rose to a peak of 295 in 1923. In 1934 a third floor was added to the main building, along with a Nurses Home and physician cottages.

Overcrowding led to more TB sanatoriums opening: one in The Dalles and the University Tuberculosis Hospital in Portland opened in 1939. The Salem hospital remained open after the University hospital closed in 1963. The Oregon State Tuberculosis Hospital closed in 1969, and Corban University bought the property.