
Kansas Sanitarium
From ARH, Jan. 29, 1920, Vol. 97, No. 5 page 27.
Kansas Sanitarium (fl. 1902–1927) and Wichita Sanitarium (fl. 1927–1929)
By Michael W. Campbell
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: November 8, 2022
Kansas Sanitarium was a medical establishment located in Wichita, Kansas. Originally called the Kansas Sanitarium (1902-1927), it was briefly dubbed the “Wichita Sanitarium” (1927-1929).
The Beginning
Lawrence C. (1877-1963) and Lena May (1876-1967) Christofferson, graduate nurses from the Nebraska Sanitarium, began medical missionary work in 1902 by opening treatments rooms and a vegetarian café in Wichita, Kansas. The chamber of commerce expressed interest in a sanitarium and invited J. H. Kellogg to address a group of leading citizens at the First Presbyterian Church. On September 16, 1902, the sanitarium served a special opening dinner.
The Kansas Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association was organized March 19, 1903, in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In June 1903, Dr. G. A. Droll became the first physician. In March 1904, the Central Union Conference officially recognized the Kansas Sanitarium “as a regularly organized denominational institution.”1 Beginning that fall, they conducted a nurses’ training school, and by 1905, the two classes numbered thirteen. On June 8, 1904, the business association of the city contributed ten thousand dollars along 20 acres lying two and a half miles west of the city (3200 W. Douglass Ave., W. Wichita, KS).2 They later gave an additional $1,800 cash, which with $10,000 in cash and pledges from across the Kansas Conference, made it possible to erect a new building.
On August 29, 1904, the cornerstone for the new facility was laid. The new facility was described as
erected upon an elevation commanding a beautiful view in every direction. It is veneered with brick, fronts the east, has a capacity of about thirty-five patients. The measurements are forty-four by eighty-eight feet, four stories, and the wing to the west is thirty by thirty-two feet, three stories high. The sanitarium has its own water, heat, and electric-light plant. A lawn of four acres surrounds the building, covered by three hundred young shade-trees. The rest of the twenty acres is largely used for garden purposes. . . . The ground is considered valuable. The cost of the land, and the building with its splendid equipment, is nearly thirty thousand dollars.3
The institution was formally dedicated on June 14, 1905. On the first floor was a food store and health restaurant. A physician’s office, bathrooms, and living rooms were on the second floor. Soon the sanitarium was full, and a search was made for additional space for patients. Dr. David Paulson delivered the opening address on the theme “Need of Our Sanitariums, and Work Accomplished by Them.”4
Growth
By 1907, it was reported that the sanitarium’s 45 rooms were “filled to its capacity most of the time.” The main brick building was supplemented by a three-story annex with ladies and gentlemen’s bath and treatment rooms, a surgical ward, and operating room.5 The buildings were “lighted with electricity and heated with steam” making it one of “the best of our institutions.”6 It was reported that there was a total of 18 students in three nursing classes.7
In 1914, R. A. Underwood spoke at the Kansas Conference camp meeting, held in Wichita, with over 1,000 church members present. He estimated that 60 percent of the patronage came from individuals in the Wichita community, and he was taken back and forth to the camp meeting in the sanitarium automobile.8 Also that year Harry W. Miller reported on a visit to the Kansas Sanitarium, which he dubbed as “one of the most prosperous and wide-awake cities of the Central West.” The institution had “good patronage” and included care for “the needy poor” with a “very low weekly rate.”9
Two years later in 1916, the strong patronage, meant another building expansion including a new elevator.10 In early 1919, church members also raised $20,000 to reduce the indebtedness of the institution.11 This made it possible to once again do some necessary upgrades to attract patronage and support staffing. L. A. Hansen reported in 1920 that the new nurses’ dormitory, erected at a cost of $18,000, was a significant improvement. One of the nurses, Edith Johnson, volunteered to serve as a missionary in China.12 The sanitarium also boasted a brand-new x-ray machine at a cost of $3,000.13
On July 24, 1921, the young business manager, B. G. Wilkinson reported about yet another major extension (an “annex” of thirteen rooms with private baths) was added on to the Kansas Sanitarium. The new construction included a covered entrance with a sun parlor. The operating room was thoroughly remodeled with a new addition to the kitchen, too. A new French gray omnibus was purchased to run from the union depot directly to the sanitarium four times a day. F. W. Paap had done a “shingle campaign” getting area people to donate cash to help cover construction costs. Dr. G. T. Harding, brother of then U.S. President Warren Harding, spoke at the dedication of the new expansion.14 The new addition helped increase patronage.15 Earlier financial losses sustained in 1919 ($16,000) and 1920 ($8,000) had turned around to a gain of $25,000 in 1921.16 Most of these funds came from donations rather than from fees paid by patients. In 1923, there was a positive gain of $8,000 showing once again a financial credit.17
Struggles
In the late 1920s, the Kansas Sanitarium struggled financially. In 1927, M. E. Kern noted strong support for the institution despite unidentified “perplexing problems.”18 Running a medical institution placed a financial strain on the Kansas Conference, and ownership of the sanitarium was transferred to the Central Union Conference. The Kansas Conference, Central Union, and General Conference, each contributed $15,000 allowing for relief from financial indebtedness. The institution was at that time also renamed the “Wichita Sanitarium.”19 Unfortunately, this financial relief arrived in September 1929 just before the infamous stock market crash presaging the Great Depression of the 1930s. In late 1929, the sanitarium closed due to the financial shock and inability to secure enough money. R. J. Brines, a former missionary to China, was the last medical superintendent. On January 20, 1930, an auction was held to sell any remaining equipment.20 The facilities were purchased by J. S. Porter who remodeled the main building to develop a school for breeding rabbits.21 This was a short-lived venture, and the County eventually purchased the property. The buildings have since disappeared, and it is currently the site of an elementary school and city park. Lamar W. Young later noted that several Adventist sanitariums that did not modernize in the early twentieth century, including the Kansas Sanitarium, faded away.22 The Center for Adventist Research has a modest collection of 13 archival boxes pertaining to the Kansas Sanitarium from 1925-1929.23
Medical Superintendents
G. A. Droll, M.D. (1902-1903); Bert E. Fullmer, M.D. (1904-1905); P. S. Kellogg, M.D. (1906). F. E. Braucht (1907-1909); J. Emerson Heald (1910); A. B. Dunn, M.D. (1911-1912); L. L. Jones (1913); L. A. Sutter, M.D. (1914-1916); Robert L. Stokes, M.D. (1917-1919); F. C. Dean (1919-1921); Paul Christman, M.D. (1922-1925); R. C. Leggitt, M.D. (1927); R. J. Brines (1927-1929).
Sources
Braucht, F. E. “Kansas Sanitarium.” ARH, June 6, 1907.
Christeofferson, L. C. “Kansas Sanitarium.” ARH, July 13, 1905.
Hansen, L. A. “The Kansas Sanitarium.” ARH, January 29, 1920.
Hollister, M. A. “Kansas Camp-Meeting.” ARH, September 25, 1924.
F. W. Paap, “The Kansas Camp-Meeting.” ARH, October 13, 1921.
Underwood, R. A. “The Missouri and Kansas Camp Meetings.” ARH, October 1, 1914.
Wilkinson, B. G. “A Dedication at the Kansas Sanitarium.” ARH, August 25, 1921.
Wilkinson, B. G. “Two Years in Kansas.” ARH, August 17, 1922.
Young, Lamar W. “Building on a Vision: Foundations of the Adventist Health System, 1900-1986.” Adventist Review, February 13, 1986.
Notes
-
R, W. Parmele, “The First Session of the Central Union Conference,” ARH, April 7, 1904, 19.↩
-
General Conference Session Recording Secretary Minutes, May 19, 1905, 5; “Sixteenth Meeting,” ARH, June 1, 1 905, 8.↩
-
L. C. Christeofferson, “Kansas Sanitarium,” ARH, July 13, 1905, 16.↩
-
Ibid.↩
-
F. E. Braucht, “Kansas Sanitarium,” ARH, June 6, 1907, 21.↩
-
Ibid.↩
-
Ibid.↩
-
R. A. Underwood, “The Missouri and Kansas Camp Meetings,” ARH, October 1, 1914, 15.↩
-
H. W. M[iller], “Work at the Sanitariums,” ARH, February 12, 1914, 19-20.↩
-
L. A. Hansen, “Visits to Sanitariums,” ARH, January 27, 1916, 19.↩
-
R. A. Underwood, “Report from the Central Union,” ARH, March 27, 1919, 21.↩
-
L. A. Hansen, “The Kansas Sanitarium,” ARH, January 29, 1920, 27; F. W. Stray, “Kansas,” ARH, February 26, 1920, 8.↩
-
F. W. Stray, “Kansas,” ARH, Feb. 26, 1920, 8.↩
-
B. G. Wilkinson, “A Dedication at the Kansas Sanitarium,” ARH, August 25, 1921, 18.↩
-
F. W. Paap, “The Kansas Camp-Meeting,” ARH, October 13, 1921, 22.↩
-
B. G. Wilkinson, “Two Years in Kansas,” ARH, August 17, 1922, 20-21.↩
-
M. A. Hollister, “Kansas Camp-Meeting,” ARH, September 25, 1924, 19.↩
-
M. E. Kern, “Kansas Camp-Meeting,” ARH, July 14, 1927, 19.↩
-
C. S. Wiest, “President’s Report,” Central Union Outlook, September 11, 1929, 2.↩
-
“Public Auctions,” The Wichita Eagle, January 20, 1930, 10.↩
-
“Rabbit School is to be Established,” The Wichita Eagle, February 9, 1930, 45.↩
-
Lamar W. Young, “Building on a Vision: Foundations of the Adventist Health System, 1900-1986,” Adventist Review, Feb. 13, 1986, 20-21.↩
-
https://www.centerforadventistresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/collections/C0256%20-%20Kansas%20Sanitarium%20Collection.pdf↩