More History

We went to a Lemonade Social/Open House at the Historical Society today, and got to pick their brains a bit about our house (yay!). We knew from chatting with some of the ladies before that a doctor used to live here-- the head doctor at the state sanitarium. It turns out that he was a fairly recent resident, because some of the older ladies actually remembered him. And he's the only resident that we have a name for at this point. But we learned a few things that were really interesting!

For one, our town had not one, but TWO hospitals. The state sanitarium and the V.A. hospital. I know where the old V.A. hospital was, and thought that WAS the state sanitarium. But nope! They were two separate hospitals. In fact, the sanitarium was the first public hospital in the country dedicated entirely to helping people with tuberculosis. Our town actually had this reputation as sort of a health retreat. Something about the clean air and thick forests-- all that good stuff.

Anyway... Our house is on a corner. If you go back behind us, it's pretty heavily wooded for quite a ways, and then there is a newer housing development. Well, that newer housing development used to be the home of the state sanitarium! I even found a picture of it-- it was a huge complex!

And, according to the old property maps, our house was actually located ON the land belonging to the sanitarium. Our house predates the hospital by about 70 years, though, so they must have purchased it when they bought the rest of the land. And based on what they know, the ladies at the Historical Society think that our house was probably used as hospital-provided housing for ALL the head doctors-- not just the most recent one that they know of. Crazy!

Anyway, I thought it was really neat, and I am still hoping to learn more. Especially about the people who built this house and lived here back in 1830. Our home inspector says it looks like it was built by shipbuilders in their off season, based on the floor support beams that are visible in the basement (they look like masts). This house definitely has a story to tell-- but I think I'm going to have to spend more time at the Historical Society to piece it all together!