Buffalo Sanitarium (1902–1908)

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: January 30, 2025

Audio

Buffalo Sanitarium was an Adventist health facility from 1902 to 1908. It was located initially at 868 Niagara Street (1902-1903) and in 1903 onward at 922 Niagara Street.

As early as 1902, A. O. Burrill reported that the “little branch” Buffalo Sanitarium “is advancing finely” with Dr. Albert R. Satterlee (1867-1924) giving health talks on Thursday evenings.¹ By late 1903 church leaders reported that there was enough work to support two doctors and two nurses.² Soon there was a stock of Battle Creek Sanitarium foods available for sale. On occasion, Dr. Holden from Chicago would travel to Buffalo to assist the staff with surgeries. Also, in 1903, they began to look for a new house from which to conduct this health ministry.³

When the health institution moved on May 1, 1903, from 868 to 922 Niagara Street into “a more commodious house” that had 18 rooms (previously they had only 8) including several large rooms and three bath-rooms.⁴ Dr. J. H. Kellogg reportedly took a personal interest in this new “branch” sanitarium.⁵ By August 1903 the Buffalo Sanitarium installed an electric light bath at a cost of $150.⁶ By late 1903 the sanitarium staff reported having 10 nurses enrolled in training.⁷ In December 1903, Kellogg visited the sanitarium to show his support performing a number of critical operations.⁸ After the first year it was reported that the institution was successful enough to operate on a self-supporting basis.⁹ The institution was listed under Adventist sanitariums beginning with the 1904 Adventist Yearbook.¹⁰ When Ellen White released her book, The Ministry of Healing, funds raised in New York Conference were donated for the benefit of the new sanitarium.¹¹ Other church members gathered blackberries to donate funds for the sanitarium.¹² W. A. Spicer reported about participating in the second graduating class consisting of four students on October 19, 1905.¹³ The sanitarium by this time had a capacity of 15 patients.¹⁴ One early patient, who detailed his conversion to Adventism as a result of his visit at the sanitarium, remembered the daily schedule:

[O]ur program ran something like this: Worship in the gymnasium (7:30 A.M.), attended by nurses and any patients who wished to come. Breakfast. Light gymnastic exercises, led by Mrs. Satterlee, superintendent of nurses, with piano music by one of the girls. Following this, we one by one met the doctor in his office, and after telling him our troubles we got his prescriptions for hydrotherapy treatments, which would be given around ten or eleven o’clock. We rested in our individual rooms after the bathroom session until the dinner hour.

Afternoons, the patients could take a walk, sit and visit, read, or otherwise fill in the time. Supper was light. Early retiring was encouraged. There were some hours every day during which there was nothing particularly pressing to do which gave opportunity for perusing some of the reading matter that was everywhere available.¹⁵

In October 1906, church leaders voted to move the Buffalo Sanitarium “to some favorable location in the country, in harmony with the instruction of the Testimonies that our health institutions should be located in the country.”¹⁶ A total of $700 was raised for this endeavor. A year later, in October 1907, church leaders voted to purchase 30 acres at Gowanda, thirty miles from the city, with existing buildings.¹⁷ While the voted action is recorded several times in church publications, the property was never purchased, and therefore the relocation never happened. In 1908, the Buffalo Sanitarium was officially dissolved.¹⁸ Any additional equipment leftover was packed up and removed to Illinois.¹⁹

Superintendent: A. R. Satterlee (1902-1908)

Sources

Burrill, A. O. “Buffalo Sanitarium,” The New York Indicator, February 18, 1903.

Burrill, A. O. “Fredonia and Buffalo,” The New York Indicator, November 26, 1902.

“Dissolution Notice,” Atlantic Union Gleaner, April 1, 1908.

Eldridge, Claude E. “Contest with Truth,” The Youth’s Instructor, December 9, 1958.

Farnsworth, E. W. “Western New York Camp-Meeting,” ARH, October 31, 1907.

Hare, G. M. and A. R. Satterlee. “Minutes of Meeting of the Medical Department of the Atlantic Union Conference. Held at the New England Sanitarium, Melrose, Mass., August 21-23, 1904,” Atlantic Union Gleaner, October 5, 1904.

“Items,” The New York Indicator, August 12, 1903.

Lane, S. H. “New York Conference. President’s Report,” Atlantic Union Gleaner, November 9, 1903.

“New York,” ARH, June 9, 1903.

Russell, K. C. “A Visit to Western New York,” Atlantic Union Gleaner, September 7, 1904.

Satterlee, A. R. “Buffalo Sanitarium,” The New York Indicator, May 13, 1903.

Satterlee, A. R. “Buffalo Sanitarium,” The New York Indicator, June 3, 1903.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1904 and 1907. https://www.adventistyearbook.org/.

Spicer, W. A. “The Buffalo (N.Y.) Sanitarium,” ARH, November 2, 1905.

Thompson, G. B. “The New York Camp-Meeting,” ARH, October 11, 1906.

Notes

A. O. Burrill, “Fredonia and Buffalo,” The New York Indicator, November 26, 1902, 2.↩
S. H. Lane, “New York Conference. President’s Report,” Atlantic Union Gleaner, November 9, 1903, 9.↩
A. O. Burrill, “Buffalo Sanitarium,” The New York Indicator, February 18, 1903, 2.↩
A. R. Satterlee, “Buffalo Sanitarium,” The New York Indicator, May 13, 1903, 3.↩
A. R. Satterlee, “Buffalo Sanitarium,” The New York Indicator, June 3, 1903, 2.↩
“Items,” The New York Indicator, August 12, 1903, 4.↩
A. R. Satterlee, “Buffalo Sanitarium,” The New York Indicator, December 2, 1903, 3-4.↩
“Items,” The New York Indicator, December 11, 1903, 4.↩
“New York,” ARH, June 9, 1903, 18.↩
Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (1904), 99.↩
G. M. Hare and A. R. Satterlee, “Minutes of Meeting of the Medical Department of the Atlantic Union Conference. Held at the New England Sanitarium, Melrose, Mass., August 21-23, 1904,” Atlantic Union Gleaner, October 5, 1904, 5-6.↩
K. C. Russell, “A Visit to Western New York,” Atlantic Union Gleaner, September 7, 1904, 9.↩
W. A. Spicer, “The Buffalo (N.Y.) Sanitarium,” ARH, November 2, 1905, 20.↩
Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (1907), 134.↩
Claude E. Eldridge, “Contest with Truth,” The Youth’s Instructor, December 9, 1958, 20.↩
G. B. Thompson, “The New York Camp-Meeting,” ARH, October 11, 1906, 15-16.↩
E. W. Farnsworth, “Western New York Camp-Meeting,” ARH, October 31, 1907, 17, 18.↩
“Dissolution Notice,” Atlantic Union Gleaner, April 1, 1908, 5.↩
See description in Atlantic Union Gleaner, June 3, 1908, 6.↩