SANITARIUM (BATTLE CREEK)

History

It first opened on September 5, 1866, as the Western Health Reform Institute. In 1876, John Harvey Kellogg became the superintendent, and his brother, W. K. Kellogg, worked as the bookkeeper. In 1878, a new structure was built on the site, but it burned down in 1902. The following year, it was rebuilt and enlarged. As Kellogg put it, they took the word "sanatorium", which back then was defined as an English term designating a health resort for invalid soldiers. "A change of two letters transformed 'sanatorium' to 'sanitarium', and a new word was added to the English language". Kellogg states the number of patients grew from 106 in 1866, to 7,006 patrons during the year 1906.^[3] "The San" and Kellogg were lampooned in T. Coraghessan Boyle's 1993 novel The Road to Wellville, and the 1994 film adaptation. In 1928, Battle Creek Sanitarium expanded with a fourteen story tower, built across the street from the main sanitarium. This tower went into receivership in 1933, while the sanitarium continued to operate from its main facility. In 1942, the U. S. Army purchased the tower and established the Percy Jones General Hospital;^[4] the hospital closed permanently in 1953 and one year later became the Battle Creek Federal Center. Owned by the Seventh Day Adventists, the Battle Creek Sanitarium continued to operate as a psychiatric facility through the 1970s but closed its doors by the end of the decade. In 1986, the main building was razed, ending the final chapter in the history of the Battle Creek Sanitarium.^[5] Medical records have since been microfiched and are now kept by the nearby Fieldstone Center, in Battle Creek, Michigan.