December 2024
One of the newest residential neighbourhoods in Hamilton, Ontario, is known as Chedoke Heights. Consisting of upscale, three-storey townhomes, the Chedoke Heights property bears no resemblance to its former function as Chedoke Hospital, a sanitarium for tuberculosis (TB) patients that opened in 1906.
Chedoke had very humble beginnings, starting as a two tent operation located on a farm where eight patients were able to be treated. At the time, the best method for treating TB patients was to keep them isolated and provide fresh air and labour to help facilitate a cure.
The Chedoke Sanatorium, also known as the Mountain Sanatorium, was the fourth sanatorium opened in Canada, after two in Gravenhurst that opened in 1898 and 1902, followed by one in Weston in 1904.
As the years went by, the tents were replaced by cottages, which were not well insulated against the winter. The cottages were themselves replaced by brick buildings.
The original 96 acres of land was designated as a healing space for Hamilton area residents suffering from tuberculosis in the early 1900s. What started out as an area to quarantine the sick, grew into a sanatorium with 700 patients and 450 staff at its peak.
This piece of land was chosen to treat the ill due to the circulation patterns of the fresh air. The swirling winds made it easier for patients with restricted lung functionality to breathe.
Over the years, pieces of the land have been sold to fund health-related projects. Most recently, the land was sold to a developer for the purpose of residential development. The hospital buildings have all been demolished to make way for a new community called Chedoke Heights.
On Sept. 26, 1916 the Hamilton Health Association agreed to build the Brow Infirmary. The Brow Infirmary was built to treat World War I soldiers suffering from tuberculosis and lungs exposed to poisonous gasses. The location of the infirmary was intended to keep the often rowdy solders away from the other patients and to take advantage of the air breeze that was available on the location. The cost to build the Brow Infirmary was $146,569 which opened on December 5, 1916.
When antibiotics were discovered by Albert Schatz in 1943, the need for long stays in sanitariums was no longer required. To remain operational the sanitarium began accepting Inuit patients from Northern Canada. From 1958 until 1962, approximately 1,300 patients received treatment at Chedoke.
Life for Inuit patients could often involve feelings of isolation, being confined to a bed, language barriers and some suffered abuse at the hands of staff.
In 1961, the sanatorium officially became Chedoke General and Children’s Hospital and ten years later, to Chedoke Hospital.
The threat of closure came in the 1970s, but an 80,000-name petition helped convince the provincial government to change those plans. Instead, Chedoke merged with McMaster University Medical Centre in 1979, and then in 1997, Chedoke-McMaster Hospitals amalgamated with Hamilton Civic Hospitals, becoming Hamilton Health Sciences.
As Chedoke Hospital of Hamilton Health Sciences, the hospital housed many of McMaster Children’s Hospital outpatient services, which specializied in autism, developmental pediatrics & rehabilitation, and mental health. Other held the internationally renowned Offord Centre for Child Studies. Other specialty departments included chronic pain management, the regional joint assessment centre, and the Ontario breast screening program.
As with many things, change is a constant thing, and Chedoke would eventually fall victim to budget cuts and further consolidation. Chedoke’s emergency department closed in 1992, leaving it as a non-acute care facility. The rehabilitation and brain injury services moved out in 2009, followed by the regional joint assessment program, in 2011.
In 2016, what began as the largest tuberculosis sanatorium in the British Commonwealth, and later became the home of leading joint assessment and rehabilitation programs, closed after 110 years of service to Canada’s health care system. The aging buildings just couldn’t keep up with the demands of modern medicine in Ontario. Instead, the services offered by Chedoke were moved to a new $100-million children’s treatment centre next to the Hamilton General. The Chedoke property had been sold around 10 years earlier, in anticipation of redeveloping the land for a new residential development.
Long & Bisby Building
The only building remaining on the former hospital campus is the Long & Bisby Building. Built in 1920, in the Edwardian Classical style, it served as a residence for nurses.
The Cross of Lorraine
While very little remains of the Chedoke Sanatorium, an important reminder of the former hospital is the Cross of Lorraine. Erected in November 1953, along the Mountain Brow at the north end of the hospital property, it remains as a tangible reminder of the former use of the property as a Sanatorium and the wider struggle to contain and eradicate Tuberculosis. The Cross is considered to be a local landmark.
The Cross of Lorraine is used as an emblem by the American Lung Association and related organizations through the world since 1902, as a symbol for the “crusade” against tuberculosis. It had been brought to the New World by French Jesuit missionaries and early pioneers in the 18th Century.
Sources: Chedoke Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario – Ontario Abandoned Places (talkingwallsphoto.com), Mountain Sanatorium | Hiking the GTA, Chedoke Hospital – Wikipedia, Notice of Intention to Designate 828 Sanatorium Road, Hamilton (Mountain Sanatorium Brow Site) | City of Hamilton, Cross of Lorraine at Historical Hamilton, Camp Calydor – Gravenhurst German POW Camp | Hiking the GTA, A celebration to say ‘farewell’ to Chedoke – Hamilton Health Sciences, Chedoke, More than a Sanatorium Historical Marker, ARCHITECTURAL CONSERVANCY ONTARIO – Risk – Long & Bisby Building, Paul Wilson: Chedoke Hospital healed the sick, but now needs a saviour itself | CBC News, Cross of Lorraine – Wikipedia.
