Inside Boulder’s forgotten sanitarium, where guests sought health and got strange cures

In the late 19th century, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg of cereal fame worked as the medical director of a sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan. In 1896, and on the advice of a patient, he established the Boulder-Colorado Sanitarium on Boulder’s Mapleton Hill.

According to its literature, people of all ages came for “refreshment of the mind, body and spirit.” These “sanitary resorts,” as they were called, were owned by the Seventh Day Adventist Church and “combined the features of a medical boarding house, hospital, religious retreat, country club and spa, in an atmosphere of reform and asceticism.” They catered to “overworked men and overweight women.”

The word “sanitarium” is not to be confused with “sanitorium” — institutions that only treated tuberculosis patients. Boulder did have less upscale facilities for tuberculosis patients, but the Boulder-Colorado Sanitarium did not permit patients with infectious diseases.

Construction began northwest of the intersection of Mapleton Avenue and Fourth Street in 1895. Tents were set up for construction workers. Bricks were hauled in horse-drawn wagons from a brickyard that was immediately east of today’s Casey Middle School. In addition to the six-story main building, the sanitarium included two 14-room “cottages,” a powerhouse, laundry, bakery, and barn. Landscapers planted trees and dug a pond. Carriage roads curved gracefully toward the front of the main building. 

Diet was an important part of the guests’ treatments, and meals were served in a fourth-floor dining room with spectacular views of the mountains and plains. Elaborate oil paintings decorated the ceiling, and an orchestra played in the background. In contrast to the elegant atmosphere was Kellogg’s advice to “Eat what the monkey eats –– simple food and not too much of it.”

As a young medical student, Kellogg was a follower of Sylvester Graham, an advocate of health foods. Graham had invented a whole wheat breakfast food that became known as the graham cracker. Then Kellogg combined nuts and grains into granola. (John Harvey’s brother, Will Keith Kellogg, invented corn flakes.)

The “guests” ate what the doctor ordered but were allowed time for transition. When they first arrived, they were seated at the “conservative table” where meat, white bread, coffee, and tea were allowed. After a day or two, they moved to the “liberal table” where they could eat meat but not coffee or tea. Finally, they reached the “radical table” where none of these so-called “poisons” were permitted.

In addition to eating what Kellogg considered a healthy diet, guests were frequent recipients of hot, warm, and even cold enemas. Kellogg also advocated the use of electric shock treatments. One included his “cure” for vomiting during pregnancy by “sending an electric shock through a woman’s body for several hours.”

In recent times, Kellogg has been described as an eccentric. He was satirized by actor Anthony Hopkins in the 1994 film, “The Road to Wellville.” Whether or not his “cures” worked has not been documented.

Between the 1920s and the 1950s, the sanitarium went through several remodels. Gradually, the old parts of the “San” (as the facility was then called) morphed into Boulder Memorial Hospital, also owned by the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Some Boulder residents today remember swimming in the hospital’s heated therapy pool, visiting newborn babies, and saying goodbye to elderly friends.

In 1989, Memorial Hospital was bought by Boulder Community Hospital and became the Mapleton Center. Then, in 2014, the site was purchased by Mapleton Hill Investments, LLC to become today’s Academy Mapleton Hill, a retirement community.

In Kellogg’s day, the doctor and his successors praised the importance of sunshine, fresh air, and exercise in what he called “outdoor gymnasiums.” Contrary to society’s then-elaborate fashion standards, men, as well as women, were encouraged to wear loose-fitting clothing while hiking. Guests were urged to “proceed up the mountain (Mount Sanitas), gather beautiful wildflowers, and rest the eye on the surrounding scenery.”

Residents and visitors make the same trek today, but the true pronunciation of Mount Sanitas has been lost in time. “Sanitas” and “sanitarium” share the same Latin derivation and refer to the health and soundness of mind and body. Real old-timers, i.e. the ones who’ve been in Boulder the longest, will explain that “SAN-i-tas” is correctly accented on the first syllable.    

Next time you take a hike, think of our predecessors who came to Boulder for “refreshment of the mind, body, and spirit.” No doubt they found it — if they survived the “cures.”