
Iowa Sanitarium. Photo courtesy of the North American Division Archives. Shared by Michael W. Campbell.
Iowa Sanitarium (1899–1943)
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 9, 2025
Iowa Sanitarium was an Adventist health facility located in Iowa. From 1899 to 1909 the facility was in Des Moines, Iowa; in 1909, it was relocated in Nevada, Iowa, and closed in 1943.
Des Moines (1899-1909)
Dr. Robert Hill Habenicht (1866-1925) established the health ministry in Des Moines, Iowa, by manufacturing health foods in the basement of a church.1 He completed the physicians’ course at Iowa State University at Iowa City in 1898 and was ordained to the gospel ministry that same summer.2 His activism in 1898 through 1899 was the catalyst behind establishing a Board of Trustees for the Iowa Sanitarium and Benevolent Association which officially met for business on September 20, 1899.3 Dr. William Lawrence Gardner (1870-1948) was appointed as the first Superintendent, with Dr. Habenicht as the assistant superintendent and his wife, Adella Habenicht (1865-1933), as matron. In 1899 construction began on a health facility located at 603 East Twelfth Street in Des Moines, Iowa. The articles of incorporation were filed in 1899.4 Church members donated cash and canned fruit to help fund establishment of the institution.5
The institution opened for patients on October 2, 1899.6 The original building’s footprint was 66 feet by 34 feet and five stories high. The entire building was heated by steam and had electric lights. Once they had enough funds, they hoped to install an elevator.7 They also started a health food manufacturing company.8 Rates ranged between $10 and $25 a week for room and board along with treatment.9 The success of the institution was attributed to its affiliation with “the famous Battle Creek, Mich., [sic] sanitarium” and operated as a self-supporting institution under the management of the Iowa Conference.10 In early August 1901 Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (1852-1943) stopped in Des Moines to attend the Iowa Sanitarium board meeting.11
On July 3, 1909, the facility was sold to the Still College of Osteopathy.12 Adventists used the funds from the sale to establish another health establishment in Nevada, Iowa. They continued operating the health food factory at 1319 Des Moines Street.
Nevada (1909-1943)
The denomination purchased 10 acres in Nevada, Iowa, approximately 38 miles north of Des Moines. Church members pledged $47,118 toward the estimated cost of $60,000. The new building was dedicated in August 1909. By 1914 the sanitarium expanded to include a nursing course.13 Soon plans were expanded to start a new school, named Oak Park Academy to succeed a school in a Stuart, Iowa.14 On June 15, 1915, the sanitarium was reincorporated.
The institution, like many others at the time, failed to modernize and become a hospital.15 A fast moving fire burned down the sanitarium in about an hour on January 30, 1943.16 Tragically one baby died in the blaze.17 The facility was insured for $50,000, but the damage was estimated at $75,000 to $100,000, which may have contributed to the decision not to rebuild the facility.18 Church members “no doubt . . . will be very sad to learn of the destruction of our Iowa Sanitarium by fire,” wrote conference president Jere D. Smith. “This is a very grave loss to the Iowa Conference.”19
On the footprint of the sanitarium, Oak Park Academy built a school gymnasium in 1948. When the school closed in 1980, many of the original buildings were torn down.20
Superintendent
W. L. Gardner (1899-1900); Emma A. Perrine (1901); J. D. Shively (1902-1904); J. E. Colloran (1904-1906); H. A. Habenicht (1907-1908); L. J. Otis (1908-1909); C. W. Heald (1910-1914); H. W. Barbour (1915-1922); W. E. Bliss (1923); H. H. Hicks (1925-1927); J. F. Morse (1928-1935); A. C. F. Schilling (1936); A. E. Gilbert (1937-1939); J. Paul Chapin (1940); John D. Conner (1941).
Sources
“Groped Way Along Hallway Thick with Smoke.” The Des Moines Register, January 31, 1943.
Habenicht, Adella. “The Iowa Sanitarium.” The Workers’ Bulletin, October 17, 1899.
Habenicht, H. A. “Iowa Sanitarium.” ARH, May 9, 1907.
Howell, W. E. “Notes Afield.” ARH, June 4, 1914.
“Iowa Sanitarium.” The Register and Leader, August 21, 1904.
McLaughlin, Lillian. “A Hospital Burns and Baby Dies.” Des Moines Tribune, January 30, 1943.
Jackson, T. S. “Terms of Iowa Sanitarium Patients.” The Workers’ Bulletin, November 28, 1899.
“Osteopaths Buy Hospital of Own.” The Daily Nonpareil, July 4, 1909.
“Sanitarium at Nevada Burns: Baby Missing; 40 Room Structure is Destroyed.” Globe-Gazette, January 30, 1943.
Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia. Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald, 1996.
Smith, Jere D. “Iowa Sanitarium Destroyed by Fire.” Northern Union Outlook, February 2, 1943.
Stevens, C. F. “Report of the Conference Committee and Sanitarium Board Meetings.” The Workers’ Bulletin, September 26, 1899, 45-46.
Notes
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H. A. Habenicht, “Iowa Sanitarium,” ARH, May 9, 1907, 20.↩
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See note in The Workers’ Bulletin, March 29, 1898, 152; see notice of ordination: “Iowa Conference Proceedings,” ARH, July 2, 1898, 13.↩
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“Report of Conference Committee and Sanitarium Board Meeting,” The Workers’ Bulletin, September 26, 1899, 45.↩
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Workers’ Bulletin, August 22, 1899, 28.↩
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See announcements in Workers’ Bulletin, September 12, 1899, 40.↩
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C. F. Stevens, “Report of the Conference Committee and Sanitarium Board Meetings,” The Workers’ Bulletin, September 26, 1899, 45-46.↩
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Adella Habenicht, “The Iowa Sanitarium,” The Workers’ Bulletin, October 17, 1899, 57.↩
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“Price List of Iowa Sanitarium Bakery,” The Workers’ Bulletin, November 7, 1899, 72. ↩
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T. S. Jackson, “Terms of Iowa Sanitarium Patients,” The Workers’ Bulletin, November 28, 1899, 81.↩
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“Iowa Sanitarium,” The Register and Leader, August 21, 1904, 12.↩
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“Notes,” The Workers’ Bulletin, August 6, 1901, 19.↩
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“Osteopaths Buy Hospital of Own,” The Daily Nonpareil, July 4, 1909, 1. The Des Moines University Medicine and Health Sciences center traces its origins to the turn of the century and notes its purchase of the sanitarium in 1909. See: https://www.dmu.edu/about/history/.↩
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See announcement in Northern Union Reaper, April 7, 1914, 7.↩
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W. E. Howell, “Notes Afield,” ARH, June 4, 1914, 17.↩
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“Iowa Sanitarium,” in the Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald, 1996), 10:796.↩
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“Groped Way Along Hallway Thick with Smoke,” The Des Moines Register, January 31, 1943, 11.↩
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Lillian McLaughlin, “A Hospital Burns and Baby Dies,” Des Moines Tribune, January 30, 1943, 1.↩
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“Sanitarium at Nevada Burns: Baby Missing; 40 Room Structure is Destroyed,” Globe-Gazette, January 30, 1943, 1.↩
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Jere D. Smith, “Iowa Sanitarium Destroyed by Fire,” Northern Union Outlook, February 2, 1943, 6.↩
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https://cityofnevadaiowa.org/community-news/demolition-begins-as-owners-of-historic-nevada-property-look-to-the-future/.↩