The Sanatariums of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin

By Pamela S. Meyers

There was a time, long after the Great Chicago Fire had prompted many Chicago area millionaires to migrate to the shores of beautiful Geneva Lake in Southeastern Wisconsin that the Lake Geneva area became known as a proper place for convalescence from mental ailments and other emotional disorders. Over a period of time several sanitariums were established in the area. 

One of the best known ones was called Oakwood. The stately-looking building, built halfway up a hill on the east side of town could be seen from the top of another hill on the west side of town as it vied for attention with the steeple of the nearby Catholic church.

Dr. Oscar King
Photo from Facebook
Lake Geneva Sanitariums

Oakwood was founded by Dr. Oscar King, a psychiatrist and neurologist, He searched the area of southeastern Wisconsin for the ideal spot to establish his sanitarium for nervous disorders. When he saw Geneva Lake and the community nestled into a valley between two hills, he snapped up property on one of the hills and built his sanitarium. The Oakwood facility was made to appeal to the well-to-do and celebrities, some who would probably come under assumed names to protect the privacy. Writer Lisa Bertotto Schmelz says in her article about King and his sanitariums:

Opened on May 13, 1885, Oakwood Springs was built at the then-astonishing cost of $80,000. Its treatments for diseases of the brain and nervous system were, at the time, the best the world could offer. In addition to promoting health via 63 acres of rolling hills and spectacular lake views, Oakwood’s attending physicians supervised a myriad of treatments. King would go on to acquire two other Lake Geneva properties and convert them into sanitariums. One was known as Lakeside, the other as Lakeside Cottage. 

Photo from Lake Geneva in
Vintage Postcards
Arcadia Publishing 2005

As Oakwood's reputation grew, Dr. King expanded to include other locations in Lake Geneva. One was known at the time as Redwood Cottage. It is now known as the Baker House restaurant. Another, called Lakeside Cottage, had already seen life as a dormitory for girls attending a seminary a short distance away. (Note a seminary for girls back then was not the same kind of seminary that trains people for Christian ministry) By the time I was a child in the 1950s, Lakeside was known as the Luzern Hotel. It was eventually torn down to make way for a larger and more modern hotel, known today as Harbor Shores. 

Lakeside Cottage as it appeared later
as the Luzern Hotel
Photo From At The Lake Magazine,
Summer 2011

Dr King wasn't the only person to establish sanitariums in Lake Geneva. From the turn of the century in 1900 until the Great Depression, a number of sanitariums were located in the Geneva Lake area. I recently came across an

Photo from Facebook,
Geneva Lake Museum Collection

advertisement for one that was located in what was last known as the Traver Hotel. Not as fancy or costly as King's facilities, but perhaps more affordable to people. Just this past summer that building, which had gone into disrepair, was torn down to make way for a new building that will house several businesses. 

One interesting note is that after Oakwood closed during the Depression, it went into disrepair and sat empty for many years. Over those years it suffered two fires and its dilapidated condition only added to its reputation among local children that the building was haunted. As a child, I heard those rumors and, just looking at it from afar, was enough to scare me half to death. I know local boys often went in there to play and horse around, but neither I or my girlfriends would never dare to go near it. It was eventually torn down and nowadays a medical building and apartment complex sit on the property. 

Did you have a building growing up that the local children thought was haunted? Did you ever find out later the history of the building?

To learn more about Dr. King and his sanitariums and methods of treatment you can find Lisa Schmelz's full article at http://www.lisaschmelz.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/Sanitariums.167110230.pdf

 Pamela S. Meyers and her two rescue cats makes their home in northeast Illinois. Only a short drive from Wisconsin where she can be found nosing around the Geneva Lake area for new story ideas. Her newest book, Tranquility Point, Book 3, in her historical Lake Geneva series releases May 5, 2020.

Deep in the Depths of New Mexico

New Mexico Cliff Dwellings

New Mexico was one of my late husband’s favorite vacation spots. Every time he visited he found surprising new worlds to explore for personal enjoyment and research. Such a rich depth of varied cultures can be discovered embedded in this southwestern state, America’s 47th.

Prehistoric Indians date from as early as 25,000 B.C. when the Sandia people left the earliest evidence of human existence. The phenomenal Anasazi basket makers and weavers existed circa 1 A.D. to 1300. The Pueblo

New Mexico Taos Pueblo Indians

Indian villages dotted the Rio Grande region during the 1200s to 1500s. Then there are the nomadic Indians, the Spanish and Mexicans. The traders and cowboys. The prospectors and frontier military. 

The railroad era started full-scale trade and migration from east to mid-west in 1878. Prospectors plied their luck and enticed big mining interests. Homesteaders and their stories vied with infamous outlaws. Farmers at one time were the mainstay and much later alongside came the atomic energy and computer chip industries. The world’s first atomic bomb detonated in 1945 in southern New Mexico after development at Los Alamos.

New Mexico Native American Pottery

After WWII trickles and then swarms of artists brought art from around the globe for the benefit of locals and the growing, huge tourist trade.

In some places, there are only a few blocks separating the culture segments providing rich specimens of artifacts and a wide scope of archaeology. Another spot in the world that possesses similar layers of different cultures stacked one upon the other is in Rome, Italy.

The capital city, Albuquerque, was founded in 1706 with eighteen families but not incorporated until 1891. The economic base has been in constant flux. From agriculture to transportation, From healthcare to technology.

Before the railroad in 1880, sheepherders ruled. When mining made it a boom

New Mexico Nuclear Waste

town with its saloons as well as a horse-drawn streetcar system, immigrants of all descents landed in droves. The main groups included Pueblo Indians, Hispanics, Europeans, African Americans and Chinese. The climate especially drew them. Albuquerque provided a dry, sun-filled refuge touted by many as healing. At one time many of its citizens included those suffering with tuberculosis and other respiratory problems and their caregivers. A dozen sanitariums were established.

In the 1920s, Albuquerque was a transcontinental air route stop. Route 66 brought transcontinental motorists through the city. A rural and urban mix congregate here in a cacophony of languages, races, and proud family histories.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~

Janet Chester Bly

Janet Chester Bly authored 31 nonfiction and fiction books, 19 she co-authored with Christy Award winning western author Stephen Bly. Titles include The Hidden West Series, The Carson City Chronicles, Hope Lives Here, and The Heart of a Runaway. She resides at 4200 ft. elev. on the Idaho Nez Perce Indian Reservation in north-central Idaho. Find at more at website: www.BlyBooks.com

Stephen Bly’s Cowboy For A Rainy Afternoon took place in Albuquerque in 1954. The whole story spans one afternoon. On that day, a ten-year-old boy goes with his grandfather to an old hotel to visit five old cowboy friends. They play cribbage in the lobby and talk about the old days. The eldest of the crew was born during the Civil War. All of them rode the range from the late 1880s until the 1940s. They tell first-hand stories of what the West was truly like. Meanwhile, a drama unfolds that propels the old men and the lad to make one last cowboy stand.

Find it here eBook or Hardback: http://www.blybooks.com/books/western-cowboy-novel/

“For me," Stephen Bly once write, "history is not the story of grand ideas, or

Cowboy For A Rainy Afternoon

broad sweeps describing movements, events or social progress. History is the story of individual people. Not all are famous, but all do help define who we are today, and why we think and act the way we do.”