Every week we publish a historic photo highlighting a story from Naperville’s past from the history archives of Naper Settlement.
The Edward Sanatorium, forerunner of Naperville’s Edward Hospital, opened its doors to tuberculosis patients on Jan. 15, 1907.
In today’s photo, the Naperville Municipal Band is seen performing for patients sometime in the early 20th century.
The sanatorium was located a quarter-mile south of Naperville on a 39.5-acre farm that continued to operate and supplied vegetables and eggs for the patients.
Eudora Hull Gaylord Spalding (1867-1942) founded the sanatorium after her first husband, Edward Gaylord (1862-1904), died of tuberculosis. In 1906, she married Keith Spalding who provided funds to run the institution.
On May 27, 1907, she deeded the institution to the Chicago Tuberculosis Institute.
The founding medical director, Theodore Sachs (1868-1916), had a goal that the Edward Sanatorium “shall be the torchbearer of just and efficient treatment of the consumptive.”
Within a year of opening, it had an administration building, open-air verandas and four tent-style sleeping facilities.
The sanatorium focused on “open-air treatment.” As a result, they were constantly upgrading their outdoor facilities.
Capacity was 28 patients in 1908 with a rate of $10 per week. That grew to 60 beds in 1910.
The purpose of the sanatorium was, in part, to prove that tuberculosis could be successfully treated locally. Frequently, people went out west to seek treatment.
Four-hundred patients were treated at Edward Sanatorium between January 1907 and January 1911, with an average stay of four months.
Sachs conducted a report that found 161 out of 176 former patients with incipient tuberculosis were in normal health and full working capacity between six months and three years and nine months after their release.
The development of antibiotics that could cure tuberculosis limited the need for sanatoria by the mid-20th century. On Oct. 1, 1955, the sanatorium reopened as Edward Hospital, an acute-care hospital with 45 beds.
The Naperville Municipal Band started as the Naperville Brass Band. The earliest account of a band performance was on July 7, 1859.
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In 1906, it became the Lounge Factory Band when it was was sponsored by the Naperville Lounge Co., which later became Kroehler Manufacturing.
On May 24, 1917, the contract with Kroehler was determined to be null and void as Kroehler no longer wanted to provide financial support for the band.
The band, with 22 musicians, was renamed the Naperville City Band. When it was chartered on May 7, 1928, it was named the Naperville Municipal Band Association.
Andrea Field is the curator of history at Naper Settlement. For more information, go to www.NaperSettlement.org.
Steve Metsch is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.