Oakwood Sanitarium (1911–1922, 1934)

Oakwood Sanitarium was an Adventist health institution established at Ellen White’s urging on the campus of Oakwood Manual Training School, today known as Oakwood University.

As early as 1905, Ellen White expressed her strong support for building this health institution:

A small sanitarium should also be established in connection with the Huntsville school. The sanitarium building should not be of a shoddy character, neither should it be narrow and contracted. It should be built substantially, and there should be in it room for the physician and nurses to carry on the work of healing the sick, and giving patients and students an education in regard to the right principles of living.¹

This testimony, later published in Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 12, urged the Huntsville School to train young men “to become competent nurses and hygienic cooks.” White added that this facility should collectively become “a strong training center for medical missionary workers.”² Two years later, she wrote that it was “God’s design” that they have “a sanitarium for the colored people.” Although some advocated for “a small sanitarium,” Ellen White shared that the advice she received was that it should be “modest but roomy” so that “the sick can be taken in and treated.” She added: “The colored race should have the benefits of such an institution as verily as should the white people.”³

Dr. Martin M. Martinson⁴ (1872-1957), who established the Graysville Sanitarium, began to lay plans in January 1908 for a new health facility in Huntsville, Alabama. Actual construction took place in the first half of 1909 as church leaders saw the need and put plans into place to establish such an institution. The sanitarium was located on the east end of the Oakwood Manual Training School campus. “The site is a beautiful one, in the midst of a fine grove of large oaks, about four miles from the city.” Dr. Martinson stated they had “good equipment” and “a full corps of workers.” His wife, Dr. Stella Clarey Martinson (1869-1953), assisted him, and together they provided excellent medical expertise.⁵

When the Martinsons relocated in April 1910, despite earlier optimism, there were not any functioning treatment rooms, and the building needed both flowing water and a heating plant. The 32 by 500-foot building itself was “well planned and constructed” with a basement and space that could function as treatment rooms, with room for a furnace and additional storage.⁶ Soon, the basement had the requisite hot water tank, with space for student bathrooms and a general treatment room. The main floor had a parlor, two medical rooms, a dining room, a kitchen, and a matron’s room. The upper floor had seven patient rooms. Finally, enough furniture and equipment were in place to begin treatments in the latter part of 1910.⁷ It was deemed wiser to wait until the next spring to open for patients. The sanitarium officially opened on March 31, 1911.⁸ The extra time allowed them to “fit up” the institution so that it would “be in good shape to receive patients as fast as they come.”⁹ Assets the first year were valued at $5,500, with space for ten patients, and attended by the two physicians and seven nurses.¹⁰ They advertised that they could “give full and half baths, sitz baths, sprays, douches, packs, fomentations, salt rubs and frictions, also massage and electricity.”¹¹ “We have an institution where you can get help, and where you can not only get well, but learn how to keep well.”¹²

In 1911 the sanitarium began its first nursing class, but tragically, the program director, Dr. Amy I. Bascom died.¹³ Soon Drs. David E. Blake (1877-1917) and Lottie Isabel Blake¹⁴ (1876-1976) took over the program. The Oakwood Sanitarium remained in operation until 1922, when it and the nursing program closed. Adventist historian A. W. Spalding (1877-1953) attributed its closure to “many handicaps and misfortunes” which included a lack of funds and sufficiently trained personnel.¹⁵ Despite setbacks, church leaders tried to reopen another “colored sanitarium” which didn’t occur until 1930 when the Riverside Sanitarium was established in Nashville, Tennessee. The sanitarium briefly reopened in 1934.¹⁶ In 1998 the East Hall or the building that housed the Oakwood Sanitarium was designated a historical landmark by the Alabama Historical Association.¹⁷

Superintendents: M. M. Martinson, M.D. (1911-1912); E. Dolphus Haysmer, M.D. (1913); J. E. Caldwell, M.D. (1914); Miss Etta Reeder (1915-1921); Emma Estella Lewis (1922); L. L. Holness (1934).

Sources

“East Hall/Oakwood Sanitarium Deemed Historical Landmark by the Alabama Historical Association,” North American Regional Voice, May 1988.

Hansen, L. A. “Our Sanitariums for Colored People,” ARH, March 7, 1912.

Martinson, M. M. “The Oakwood Sanitarium,” ARH, June 30, 1910.

Martinson, M. M. “The Oakwood Sanitarium,” The Gospel Herald, February 1911.

Martinson, M. M. “The Oakwood (Ala.) Sanitarium,” ARH, April 6, 1911.

Peterson, F. L. “A Half Century of Progress,” ARH, January 4, 1934.

Ruble, W. A., D. H. Kress, G. H. Heald, “Two New Sanitariums for the Colored People: How We Can Help,” ARH, April 15, 1909.

Spalding, A. W. Origin and History of Seventh-day Adventists. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1962.

Washburn, J. S. “The Fund for the Work in the South,” ARH, September 14, 1905.

White, Ellen G. Letter to I. H. Evans and J. S. Washburn, July 19, 1905, Letter 205, 1905. https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/10490.1#0

White, Ellen G. Letter to the Officers of the General Conference, October 2, 1907, Letter 322, 1907. https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/7845.1#0

Williams, W. H. “The Need of Colored Medical Missionaries,” ARH, August 26, 1909.

Notes

1. Quoted by J. S. Washburn, “The Fund for the Work in the South,” ARH, September 14, 1905, 24. The original letter appears as Letter 205, 1905, in the Spalding Magan Collection, 380 or PH 163, 4.↩

2. W. H. Williams, “The Need of Colored Medical Missionaries,” ARH, August 26, 1909, 14.↩

3. Ellen G. White, Letter 322, 1907, in 2MR 77.↩

4. Sources spell their name as both “Martinson” and “Marteson.” Most Adventist print sources utilize the former spelling, which is used in this article.↩

5. L. A. Hansen, “Our Sanitariums for Colored People,” ARH, March 7, 1912, 19-20; See Obituary, Southern Tidings, October 14, 1953, 10.↩

6. W. A. Ruble, D. H. Kress, G. H. Heald, “Two New Sanitariums for the Colored People: How We Can Help,” ARH, April 15, 1909, 19.↩

7. M. M. Martinson, “The Oakwood Sanitarium,” ARH, June 30, 1910, 19.↩

8. M. M. Martinson, M.D. “The Oakwood (Ala.) Sanitarium,” ARH, April 6, 1911, 19.↩

9. M. M. Martinson, “The Oakwood Sanitarium,” The Gospel Herald, February 1911, 14.↩

10. See list in ARH, August 24, 1911, 27.↩

11. M. M. Martinson, “The Oakwood Sanitarium,” The Gospel Herald, February 1911, 14.↩

12. T. H. J. “Oakwood Notes,” The Gospel Herald, October 1911, 76.↩

13. M. M. Martinson, M.D. “The Oakwood (Ala.) Sanitarium,” ARH, April 6, 1911, 19.↩

14. Ella Smith Simmons, “Blake, Charlotte (Lottie) Cornelia Isbell,” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventism, December 27, 2020, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=6CDX↩

15. A. W. Spalding, Origin and History of Seventh-day Adventists (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1962), 3:328.↩

16. F. L. Peterson, “A Half Century of Progress,” ARH, January 4, 1934, 18-19.↩

17. “East Hall/Oakwood Sanitarium Deemed Historical Landmark by the Alabama Historical Association,” North American Regional Voice, May 1988, 2.↩