Ahwahnee Sanatorium 1920

Ahwahnee Sanatorium taken in 1936 after the school was added

Photograph taken around 1957 - 1958

Sierra Historic Sites Association controls the rights to the reproduction and distribution of these digital images. They can be used for research or educational purposes only. To obtain a copy of the original photograph, contact Sierra Historic Sites Association, P. O. Box 451 Oakhurst, CA 93644 Email: fresnoflats museum@sti.net

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California State Board of Health. Monthly Bulletin vol. 17 (1921)

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The following is from a typescript housed in Madera County Library:

History
of the
Ahwahnee Sanatorium
School

1938

The information in this booklet is furnished by
Mrs. Lola A. Cease
who for many years was superintendent of the Sanatorium
and
Mrs. George Crooks
from whose parents the Sanatorium property was purchased
and
compiled by
Gertrude Kingston

About 1852, or shortly after the Yosemite Valley was found, the Yosemite Indians were started on their way to a reservation near Fresno. When they arrived at the place where the Sanatorium is now located the Indians escaped, and an attempt to recapture them and take them on was never made.

The Sanatorium is located on what used to be the main road to Yosemite. Mail and passenger horse-drawn stages made regular trips to the valley. The horses were changed every eight miles through the steeper part of the mountains. The building, which was used as the administration building, kitchen and dining rooms until 1937, when it burned, was the old hotel where passengers ate and sometimes stayed overnight on their way to the valley. This hotel was owned by Mr. Sell who, after disposing of this property, engaged in cattle ranching until his death. A number of distinguished persons visited the hotel. Among them were
    Albert, King of Belgium, who was attended by a military attaché, American attaché and a physician. Albert was Crown Prince at the time he visited.
   President Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir, an American naturalist and author of The Yosemite, were on a trip together. The president expressed a desire to see the Yosemite in quiet.
   Benjamin Ide Wheeler visited while he was President of the University of California.
   Susan B. Anthony, the distinguished leader of woman suffrage.
   The Mahjara [Maharaja] and Mahjaranee [Maharani] of Baroda were attended by a party of twelve to fifteen persons. The Mahjaranee replied, “We have no one”, whe[n] the number of attendants was mentioned. When at home, she explained, they traveled with hundreds. The Mahjaranee was in native dress. The eye of a peacock was tat[t]ooed on her forehead.
   Andrew Carnegie
   John D. Rockefeller
   Governor Pardee
   Galen Clark
   Nicholas Murray Butler
   Rube Goldberg
   H.F. Norcroff
   George Fiske
   Major Edward J. Bowes
Mrs. George Crooks of Ahwahnee, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Sell, has the register containing the signatures of these and many other persons.
In 1918 the Sanatorium property was purchased and in 1919 building operations were started. The old hotel was used for the kitchen and dining room for employees and one room was remodeled to be used as an office. Rooms were built over the office for the nurses and superintendent. A war, into which the first patients were admitted, was built. Later, when the nurse’s home was built, these rooms served as sleeping quarters for the men employees. Under the supervision of Mrs. Lola A. Cease, who was the first superintendent and served in that capacity until the fall of 1936, the sanatorium grew from a two building plant to one having a hospital, three units, two wards, a nurse’s home, recreation hall, two doctors’ homes, children’s building, school, laundry, many barns and shops, and several cottages for employees. The number of doctors has increased from on to three and the number of nurses has increased from two to thirteen. There are about twenty-five men employed. These include orderlies, cooks, waiters, engineers, carpenters, farmer, milker, boiler room man, janitor, gardener, and many helpers. The Sanatorium has a registered herd of milk cows which furnishes all the milk and cream used for drinking and cooking. The patients number over one hundred at present.
In the fall of 1928 the first classroom instruction was held on the porch of the Children’s Building except when it was raining or snowing. During unfavorable weather classes were held in the living room. School under these conditions was conducted with a number of difficulties. The children sat at long tables which had to be carried away when the school day was over. The blackboards also were portable. Miss Beatrice Morris was the teacher.
Mr. William Walton took the cure at the Sanatorium and when he was apparently an arrested case he returned to his work as principal of the High School in Los Banos. His brother, a wealthy Turlock pioneer, died and left a bequest to be used for the education of handicapped children. Mr. William Walton had kept Ahwahnee children in his mind, so he and his sister, Mrs. Frances Wells of Turlock, decided to give [$]4,500 of their brother’s estate toward founding a school. About [$]1,600 was added to this in order to build the school room now being used.
In honor of the donor’s memory and at the request of Mr. William Walton a granite tablet, donated by Mr. Fritz Krohn of Knowles bears the inscription
J. D. Walton Memorial
Erected July 1930
In 1930 plans and specifications were made by Mr. Will Bedesen, engineer of Merced, and contract for the school building was let to Neil and Wirtner, contractors of Turlock. With the completion of this school a much needed building was added to the sanatorium. It is a modern one room regulation structure with two lavatories and several other anterooms. September 17, 1930 representatives of the three counties – Merced, Madera, and Stanislaus, participated in dedicatory services with Supervisor Vaukhn [Vaughn] Whitmore presiding.
There are desks for twenty-one children. These desks can be adjusted, when necessary, for children of any size. The school is adjoining the Preventorium with a runway constructed from the children’s infermary [infirmary] to the school building, making it possible for those who are not able to walk to continue their education as their beds can be rolled directly into the school room. There have been as many as four beds in the school room at one time.
The school begins at 8:15 in the morning and ends at 4:30 in the afternoon with an intermission from 10.30 to 3:15. During this interval the children have their nourishment, play hour, dinner, and rest hour. The teacher goes to the hospital and wards to give instruction to adults between the hours of 10:40 and 11:40. Many of these are High School students who continue with one or more subjects while they are taking the cure. Some are adults who are learning to read and write English.
In 1929 the school came under the supervision and support of the County School system. Formerly the school was supported by the Sanatorium. The present educational plan is based on a method of individual instruction in order to prevent the omission or repetition of work by children coming from different schools and entering at different times. The school has an average daily attendance of about fifteen although at one time there were twenty-six enrolled.

For a list of patients who died at the Ahwahnee Sanatorium click here.

Memorial plaque at Oakhill Cemetery, Oakhurst
Photo by Ravencrest Travel
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FORMER COUNTY ASSESSOR DIES AFTER LONG ILLNESS
Modesto Bee and News-Herald 17 November 1947
MARIPOSA, Nov. 17 - Funeral services for James W. Warford, 61,
former Mariposa County assesor, will be held at 11 am tomorrow
in the Tiscornia & Ivers Funeral Home her. Rev. Donald H. Baldwin,
Merced, will officiate. Burial wil be in Mariposa Cemetery. Warford
died Saturday at the Ahwahnee Sanatorium after a lingering illness.

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Funeral services for Mrs. Edith Donnell, 35, of Merced, formerly Modesto,
who died Friday in the Ahwahnee Sanatorium, were held this morning in the
Shannon Chapel. Interment was in the Citizens Cemetery.
Modesto Bee 5 May 1941

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Jerry Lee Gudgel
25 January 1936 - 6 April 2008
Jerry Gudgel was born in a farmhouse on January 25, 1936, just east of Chowchilla on the Pacheco Pass Highway. He worked alongside his mother and father at the Ahwahnee sanatorium serving food to tuberculosis patients.

Notice from Diseases of the Chest (1952) vol. 22

Notice from Diseases of the Chest (1951) vol. 19

REALI, MRS. H. C. Nursing, 1914. Ahwahnee Sanitarium, Madera County.
Source: School of Nursing Graduates, Stanford Alumni 1891-1955, Vol.. II 1956

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Dr. Harold H. Baxter
Dr. Baxter, Oakhurst's first dentist, opened his practice
in 1963 and served the community for 18 years. During this time
he was the resident dentist of the Ahwahnee Sanatorium.

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Andrew and Meryl Mecchi opened a general store in Ahwahnee in 1925. The original building was put on skids and pulled by horses from Poison Switch (near River Creek golf Course) to Ahwahnee. The road, in those days, was unpaved. The store sold everything from sugar to dynamite. The Ahwahnee Sanatorium was just up the road, and Mr. Mecchi would take orders from the patients, and then deliver them to the hospital. After 70 years in business the store (Neufeld's) closed on 31 March 1997. (Source: Sierra Star 3/5/98)

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Madera Daily Tribune 15 January 1969

Closure of the Ahwahnee Sanatorium by June appears
to be a certainty. The Board of Supervisors Tuesday
discussed a recommendation voted by the Ahwahnee
directors for closure by the end of June. Patients
probably would be transferred to facilities in Fresno.
The future of the grounds and facilities and of the employees
are more open questions that what will become of the
patients. Terming the mountain setting "beautiful and
valuable", Harold Balmat suggested that the board set both the
price and standards high and look for a developer who
could create a recreational attraction. Balmat says he
envisions a golf course and airport in the development and
would avoid purchase by a speculator at all costs. The
board also briefly discussed possibilities of acquiring Merced
County's half interest in the property. The tuberculosis
treatment center is jointly owned and administered by the two counties.
Mariposa County once was included in a tri-county operation.
The employees are "good and faithful," Balmat also
remarked, urging that those who are interested be given county
positions if possible. The closure decision is based primarily
upon a declining patient load and rising costs. Last year,
operation of the facility cost Madera County $42 per day per patient,
Balmat reported. He noted that Fresno, Kern, Kings. Tulare and
other counties are in similar situations. Fresno has offered
to take patients from neighboring counties at an expected cost
of $22 per day he said. Mentioning the facilities, Balmat said
they may not meet state hospital standards, but might be excellent
for a retirement center or other use of this nature. Final decisions
are expected to be made at a Feb. 7 meeting of the Ahwahnee
directors which both board of supervisors are urged to attend

Madera Daily Tribune 10 February 1969

AHWAHNEE - Closure of the Ahwahnee Sanatorium by July 1 and sale
of the property for $500,000 was decided upon in a joint meeting
of Madera and Merced County supervisors Friday. The two boards
jointly agreed to close the facility as a tuberculosis treatment center by
July 1, start of the next fiscal year. Madera County immediately
took steps to negotiate a contract for care of local patients in Fresno
County facilities. The Merced County supervisors indicated that they may take
the same action. The half-million price will be asked for the property
on the basis of an appraisal of the 420-acre site, described as a
beautiful area, and the improvements. The Madera board also passed a
resolution calling for preparation of plans and zoning for the site which will establish
its future use by private purchasers. Madera County Supervisor Jack Schmitz said
someone may want to use the facility as a treatment center for alcoholics.
The hospital was established in 1919 and for many years served three counties,
Madera, Merced and Mariposa. Improvemed methods of treatment have
lowered the patient load; increasing the cost for each person treated.