This abandoned medical institute was originally built in 1912 as a small hospital to help treat and research the influx of infectious diseases in America. Within a year of opening, the hospital built a new state-of-the art laboratory next door, and the two buildings were connected at the second floor by an enclosed walkway. The two buildings together, the new laboratory and the hospital, then became an institute for infectious diseases. The state-of-the art facility included equipment required for bacteriological, immunological, and pathological investigations and research.
Shortly after the laboratory building opened, a local farmer donated one of his suburban farms so that the institute could start using the farm’s animals to breed, study, research, and test the animals in a laboratory setting. The focus of the institute was to advance the knowledge of infectious diseases in order to improve the methods of prevention and cure, as well as to care for patients suffering from certain acute infectious diseases.
The patients that were treated at the institute were all referred by the local health department after they met a certain criteria; mainly patients that were diagnosed with diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles, mumps, whooping cough, and other infectious and contagious diseases. Since treatment and services were free for the patients, they all had to live below the poverty line and had to have been considered “poor” in order to receive the free treatment and services at the institute. Only several years after first opening it’s doors, the primary purpose of the institute became focused on vaccination, which is quite wild to think about now with the current COVID pandemic. Anyway, the institute gained a lot of publicity and attention when they began to not only manufacture vaccines, but also they distributed the vaccines as well.
In the 1920’s, the institute was said to have disbursed over 100 million vaccines to different patients all over the country. Records also show that in it’s first 20 years, the institute treated and saved the lives of nearly 15,000 patients; who might have otherwise fallen victim to the vast array of deadly and contagious diseases that plagued our country during those years. Many people also credit the institute with developing safety protocols and personal protection equipment (PPE) for staff when managing and treating patients with contagious diseases and infections.
During it’s heyday, the institute also served a vital educational purpose as the institute provided clinical instructions to medical students, nurses were instructed in proper infection control, and both interns and residents received specialized training before moving onto their permanent positions. Although the institute did eventually close it’s doors for financial reasons, the work of the institute continued for many years into the future, some still being utilized today. In 1943, the institute was taken over by a group of dedicated doctors to support research and educational programs designed to train physicians and other health professionals in the local area.
The institute was eventually absorbed into a local university hospital system where cutting-edge research and high-quality medical care were developed and are still the standards today. The institute eventually closed in 2017 and is still sitting abandoned as of 2021. There is no doubt that the institute’s founders would certainly be pleased to see what would eventually come from all the years of research at the institute, especially as the world grapples with this everlasting current COVID-19 pandemic.