Viewing this postcard without reading the caption, one might think this was the dining room of a luxury hotel. in fact, it was located in the Still-Hildreth Sanatorium, the first osteopathic neuropsychiatric institution. While researching the history of Still-Hildreth in 2013, Leslie M. Ching, DO, interviewed former staff members and staff member families. They recalled formal white linen tablecloths and china service in the dining room, with staff sitting at one end of the room, and patients sitting at the rest of the tables, both groups being served by waitstaff and everyone treated like royalty. (1)
Arthur Grant Hildreth, DO, president and superintendent of SHS, was very concerned about diet and banned salty and spicy foods from the kitchen. He built a huge greenhouse and dairy barn to ensure fresh food for his patients. They were also encouraged to exercise, walking the many trails on the property, and to swim and boat on the two lakes. He retained the amenities of the former military academy, a billiard room, music room and library. Each patient also received OMT at least three times a week. (2)
The dairy barn is shown in this postcard along with some of Dr. Hildreth's registered Holsteins.
So how successful were these modialities in treating patients at SHS? In 1929 the sanatorium published statistics of all patients treated during its first fifteen years. Courses of treatment averaged between three to twelve months (though often much longer), with recovery rates of 35.5% in dementia praecox (schizophrenia), 66% in manic depression, 94% in infection, exhaustion and toxic psychoses, and 77% in "psychneuroses." Three years later Hildreth reported that in over 2000 cases cases treated to that date 55% had made full recoveries, and he asserted that "most types of insanity" could benefit from osteopathic treatment. (3)
In 2014 Leslie M. Ching, DO, published the results of an examination she did of 1891 extant records from the sanatorium. With the patient information redacted, she compared the records with the published reports of recovery rates during the same period to evaluate the high rates of recovery that were claimed. She made no firm conclusions due to disparities in patient totals and results, but did find that many patients did appear to improve or recover. (4)
After Hildreth's death in 1941, the scope of treatment expanded to include hydotherapy, electroshock treatments, and Freudian methods. With the development of psychotropic medications, a divide in treatment approaches developed bewtween two of the staff physicains, Dr. Richard Still and Dr. Charles Still, Jr. One used the new medications while the other continued to use only OMT. Unfortunately, no comparison of their results is available. (5)
Another postcard from the D'Angelo Library Archives depicts the bathouse and pavilion on one of the lakes on the SHS property. In 1936 a group of psychiatrists and neurologists on their way to the AOA convention that year stopped at the sanatorium and discussed forming a specialty association. The American College of Neuropsychiatrists would hold several annual meetings there in the years to come, using the pavilion for gatherings and picnics. (6)
Still-Hildreth Sanatorium began to decline in the 1950s. The discovery of new drugs and treatments for mental diseases decreased the demand for this sort of in-patient facility. The large building was expensive to heat and required a large staff. Having been in operation since 1914, the sanatorium was closed in August 1968. The property was purchaced by the city of Macon and sat empty for several years before being renovated into housing for the elderly. (7)
A visit to the property in 2017 found the elegant marble stairs with the intricate copper railings still standing in the main building where the former patient rooms had been converted to apartments. The dairy barn was privately owned, and the bath house, pavilion and one of the lakes were long gone. The annex building which had once held a gym, and was later converted to rooms for patients who needed restraints had been converted to the Macon County Historical Society Museum. There are a few artifacts from the sanatorium on display there including a chilling patient room with bars on the door and leg restraints, a hint of a darker history. (8)
Notes
1. Ching LM. The Still-Hildreth Sanatorium: A History and Chart Review. AAO Journal. 2014;24:12-34.
2. Fitzgerald M. The Rise of the First DO Psychiatric Facility. The DO. 1988;29:134-140.
3. Lewis JR. A. T. Still: From the Dry Bone to the Living Man. Gwenedd, Wales, United Kingdom: Dry Bone Press; 2013.
4. Ibid, Ching.
5. Ibid, Ching.
6. Ibid, Fitzgerald.
7. Warner G. The First School of Ostoepathic Medicine, Kirksville, Missouri, the Thomas Jefferson University Press at Northeast Missouri State University; 1992.
8. Author visit, 2017.
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