DEAR SUN SPOTS: Seeking information about the Pleasant Street Sanatorium in Lewiston in operation during the 1920s.
— No name, no town
ANSWER: Sun Spots is aware of the sanatorium operating in Hebron, but has never heard of the one in Lewiston, so she turned to the Androscoggin County Historical Society for help.
Joline Froton, who is the administrative assistant there, was happy to do some research.
The historical society has a collection of Lewiston-Auburn Directories dating back to the 1700s, and Ms. Froton was able to find the Pleasant Hill Sanatorium listed in the 1918-19 directory.
According to the directory, the Pleasant Hill Farm and Private Sanatorium, operated by proprietor Edward Gagne, was near Scribner Boulevard.
The directory also contained an advertisement for the sanatorium, offering: “Best of care and attention given to patients.” “Situated away from all noises and dust.” “Telephone Connection.”
Below the sanatorium advertisement is information regarding another business that Edward Gagne owned, which reads, “Lumber and Stove Wood of all kinds.”
It lists the location as: Pleasant Hill Farm, Near Scribner Boulevard — Pleasant Street — R.F.D. No.2 – Lewiston, Maine.
The last listing for the sanatorium was in the 1928 directory, Ms. Froton said.
In 1915, at a time when about 1,000 people were dying every year of tuberculosis, the Legislature appropriated $75,000 to establish a board of trustees for Tuberculosis Sanatoriums, which then established sanatoriums around the state. Patients were charged for treatment based on their ability to pay.
According to the Maine Memory Network, the Maine State Sanatorium in Hebron was the first. It originally opened in 1904 as a private institution, but was taken over by the state. Only patients who doctors believed could be cured were assigned there. Other patients, with more advanced cases, were assigned to the Chase Memorial Sanatorium in Fairfield, which had also been a private institution and was renamed the Central Maine Sanatorium when the state took control.
Tuberculosis — often called the White Plague — was one of the leading causes of death across the country at the time.
In 1917, the Legislature appropriated another round of funding to build a sanatorium in Aroostook County, called the Northern Maine Sanatorium. That center opened in 1920.
There were also three private or semiprivate sanatoriums in Parsonsfield, Bangor and Andover. The one in Lewiston was private.
Once patients were diagnosed with tuberculosis, they were initially confined to hospital wards. They often waited two to three months to be moved to state institutions because the wait lists were so long.
The Hebron sanatorium closed in 1959 when the state cut funding, and the last sanatorium closed in 1969 when new treatments were developed that did not require patients to be segregated.
DEAR SUN SPOTS: Again, I need to say “thank you” so very much for coming through for me when I wrote you in regard to having some framing done. You responded within days and I followed up on your suggestion of Kimball Street Studios, 191 Lisbon St.
I would certainly recommend them to anyone. Thanks to Sun Spots, I now have a beautiful framed piece of counted cross stitch to admire.
— MLL, Auburn
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