Arizona Sanitarium

Photo courtesy of the North American Division archives.

Arizona Sanitarium (1903–1913)

By Michael W. Campbell

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Michael W. Campbell, Ph.D., is North American Division Archives, Statistics, and Research director. Previously, he was professor of church history and systematic theology at Southwestern Adventist University. An ordained minister, he pastored in Colorado and Kansas. He is assistant editor of The Ellen G. White Encyclopedia (Review and Herald, 2013) and currently is co-editor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Seventh-day Adventism. He also taught at the Adventist International Institute for Advanced Studies (2013-18) and recently wrote the Pocket Dictionary for Understanding Adventism (Pacific Press, 2020).

First Published: October 14, 2024

Arizona Sanitarium was an Adventist-affiliated health institution that ran from 1903 to 1913.

The Arizona Sanitarium opened in a rented facility at 525 North Center Street in Phoenix, Arizona, on February 1, 1903. After 1908, the address was listed as 515 North Center Avenue. The rented house allowed them to begin operations economically, with space for 41 rooms, one suite for women and one for men for treatments.1

The first annual meeting of the Arizona Conference (a meeting of representatives from the various congregations in the territory) was held in the parlor of the Arizona Sanitarium from April 17-22, 1903.2 During those meetings, on April 20, 1903, the Arizona Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association was organized.3 The conference president, E. W. Webster, noted that its unique location between east and west and the fact that it was “the only place in Arizona where our [Battle Creek Sanitarium] methods and principles are practiced” made it strategically significant.

A reporter for The Arizona Republican found that the most unique aspect of the sanitarium was the food it served.

Prominent among these practices is their dietic idea . . . [that] man should confine his diet to the vegetable kingdom. . . . mashed potatoes, cauliflower, cabbage, etc. . . . they have also a vegetable compound that is prepared in bulk at Battle Creek and shipped in sealed cans . . . It has something of a meat flavor, and is very nutritious, though of course it would not fool the man that really wanted meat.4

Treatments advertised included massage, electricity, light baths, vibratory treatments, and baths to alleviate diseases.5

In the fall of 1907, they established a “country branch” of the sanitarium five miles east of Phoenix on the S. P. Railroad for tuberculosis patients. This branch was under the supervision of J. M. Bond, the son of the founder, E. C. Bond (1874-1940). The father was a graduate of the California Medical College and had spent time working at the St. Helena Sanitarium before starting the Arizona Sanitarium.6

The sanitarium was affiliated, but never owned, by the denomination7. By 1913, it had ceased to operate. After the closure, Dr. Bond went to work at the Glendale Sanitarium before returning to private practice.8

Superintendent: Elmer C. Bond (1903-1913)

Sources

“The Arizona Medical and Surgical Sanitarium: Equipped for the Same Method of Treatment as the Battle Creek, Michigan Sanitarium.” The Arizona Republic, April 1, 1908.

“The Arizona Sanitarium: Where Many Invalids Are Surrounded by Home Comforts.” The Arizona Republic, February 5, 1904.

Obituaries. ARH, September 26, 1940.

“Organization of the Arizona Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association.” Pacific Union Recorder, August 13, 1903.

Webster, E. W. “The Arizona Sanitarium.” ARH, May 5, 1903.

Webster, E. W. “The Arizona Conference.” Pacific Union Recorder, May 7, 1903.

Notes

  1. E. W. Webster, “The Arizona Sanitarium,” ARH, May 5, 1903, 18.

  2. E. W. Webster, “The Arizona Conference,” Pacific Union Recorder, May 7, 1903, 3-5.

  3. “Organization of the Arizona Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association,” Pacific Union Recorder, August 13, 1903, 13-14.

  4. “The Arizona Sanitarium: Where Many Invalids Are Surrounded by Home Comforts,” The Arizona Republic, February 5, 1904, 5.

  5. “The Arizona Medical and Surgical Sanitarium: Equipped for the Same Method of Treatment as the Battle Creek, Michigan Sanitarium,” The Arizona Republic, April 1, 1908, 29.

  6. Ibid.

  7. See, for example, the wording on Arizona Sanitarium in Year Book of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination: The Official Directories (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1905), 106.

  8. Obituaries, ARH, September 26, 1940, 25.

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Campbell, Michael W. "Arizona Sanitarium (1903–1913)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. October 14, 2024. Accessed February 18, 2025. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=2JPL.

Campbell, Michael W. "Arizona Sanitarium (1903–1913)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. October 14, 2024. Date of access February 18, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=2JPL.

Campbell, Michael W. (2024, October 14). Arizona Sanitarium (1903–1913). Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. Retrieved February 18, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=2JPL.