Honolulu Sanitarium (1896–1902)

Adventist medical establishment located at 1082 King Street in Honolulu on the island of Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands. Due to its location, it was occasionally called the King Street Sanitarium.

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (1852-1943), his wife Ella (née Eaton) (1853-1920), and one of their adopted daughters arrived in Honolulu on June 4, 1896.¹ They came to collaborate with John’s younger brother, Dr. Preston Stanley Kellogg (1858-1930), to consider possible sites for a branch of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Hawaii.² They inspected several sites, but when other locations were not available, they situated themselves in the Fernandez residence just beyond Thomas Square on King Street where they established an Adventist health facility.³ Initially three rooms in the residence were set aside for treatment, and Preston was assisted by two trained nurses from the contiguous United States. When John returned to Battle Creek, Michigan, he left the establishment in the hands of Preston.⁴

A local newspaper noted that “a more ideal locality for a sanitarium” could not be found in Honolulu.⁵ The institution opened on July 1, 1896, and in the first year three hundred people were treated. The newspaper noted that the establishment laid no claim to any “secret remedies” or “elixir of life,” but their secret to success was “one of methods rather than drugs.”⁶ The local newspaper claimed the new facility was indeed “a boon” for both residents as well as those seeking health “after a delightful sea voyage.”⁷ The focus was on how to train and educate the sick. It carried some of the latest medical equipment and treatments of the time:

The Honolulu Sanitarium will be made as fast as possible a thoroughly scientific health establishment. Microscopical and bacteriological examinations will be made when necessary. A careful study of the nerves, muscles and the functional condition of the body, as far as possible, will also be made.

The methods of treatment will include all rational remedies for disease and a great many which can best be employed only in a well equipped sanitarium, including hydrotherapy, electricity in all forms, sun baths, Swedish movements, manual and mechanical, medicated inhalations and atmospheres, pneumatic treatment, etc. etc. Among the therapeutic resources Dr. Kellogg holds that the electric light or radiant heat bath, to be employed here, is much superior to the Turkish, Russian, vapor and all other forms of eliminative baths. Swimming will be taught and prescribed as a healthful exercise and essential accomplishment.⁸

Preston left to return to America in May 1898.⁹ Without a medical director, the institution began to decline until Dr. Luella S. Cleveland (1866-1951) arrived about a year later. ¹⁰

The Honolulu Sanitarium remained affiliated with the denomination up through 1902.¹¹ When John Harvey Kellogg took many of the health institutions out of the denomination, followed by his own eventual departure from the Seventh-day Adventist Church, this was one of the institutions the denomination was in the process of losing.¹² After the Battle Creek Sanitarium burned down on February 18, 1902, there were no longer resources to support the Honolulu Sanitarium, which was making a profit. An announcement of the institutions closure and sale of furnishings occurred on February 26, 1902.¹³

Superintendents: Preston S. Kellogg, M.D. (1896-1898); Luella S. Cleveland, M.D. (1899-1902)

Sources

“Chain of Health: Battle Creek, Michigan, Sanitariums Circle Globe. Something of Honolulu Branch: King Street Institution a Mecca for Invalids. Various Methods of Treatment Described—Visit of a Reporter to Establishment.” The Honolulu Advertiser, April 16, 1897.

“Dr. Kellogg in Business: Early Success of the Experimental Sanitarium.” The Hawaiian Star, July 14, 1896.

“Good Chances for a Sanitarium: Dr. Kellogg and Mr. Yates, With Party, Visit Mountain Sites: Conditions Are Favorable.” The Honolulu Advertiser, June 19, 1896.

Notes

1. See the announcement in Evening Bulletin, June 5, 1896, 5.↩

2. Obituary, The Los Angeles Times, April 8, 1930, 17; “Good Chances for a Sanitarium: Dr. Kellogg and Mr. Yates, With Party, Visit Mountain Sites: Conditions Are Favorable,” The Honolulu Advertiser, June 19, 1896, 3.↩

3. “Dr. Kellogg in Business: Early Success of the Experimental Sanitarium,” The Hawaiian Star, July 14, 1896, 1.↩

4. “The Sanitarium: Dr. Kellogg Secures Temporary Quarters,” The Honolulu Advertiser, June 27, 1896, 3.↩

5. “Chain of Health: Battle Creek, Michigan, Sanitariums Circle Globe. Something of Honolulu Branch: King Street Institution a Mecca for Invalids. Various Methods of Treatment Described—Visit of a Reporter to Establishment,” The Honolulu Advertiser, April 16, 1897, 1.↩

6. “Chain of Health,” The Honolulu Advertiser, April 16, 1897, 1.↩

7. Ibid.↩

8. “Dr. Kellogg in Business: Early Success of the Experimental Sanitarium,” The Hawaiian Star, July 14, 1896, 5.↩

9. See notice of his departure in “Local Items,” Hilo Daily Tribune, May 21, 1898, 5.↩

10. For genealogical information, see: http://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tools/tree/188974209/invitees/accept?inviteId=41520c4c-4a72-4a4b-887f-b78ab39e3209 [accessed 2/4/23].↩

11. General Conference Committee Minutes, September 22, 1904, 38.↩

12. “Report of the Investigating Committee for the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association,” this report is filed with the General Conference Committee Minutes, September 22, 1904, 24-37. The departure of Kellogg from the denomination was a process. Kellogg retained increasing control of health institutions at the expense of denominational affiliation and ownership. This process was in flux from the late 1890s until Kellogg was eventually disfellowshipped from the denomination in 1906.↩

13. See the announcement in The Honolulu Advertiser, February 26, 1902, 7.↩