Pine Camp Tuberculosis Hospital (c. 1960s)
Pine Camp Recreation Center (c. 2015)
Site Name: Pine Camp Community Center (formerly
Pine Camp Tuberculosis Hospital)
Date of Construction: 1910
Reason for Construction: The hospital was built to treat
tuberculosis patients and to try to keep the disease from spreading.
Site History: Before the hospital was opened in
1910, the property where it sat was known as the City Farm, which was
established in 1866. City Farm was composed of 167 acres of land, with a small
cemetery and, in the center, a farm house. Starting in the early 20th
century, the city of Richmond used the cemetery and farm house as an isolation
ward which they called the “pest house”, where people with highly contagious
diseases such as small pox could reside without the risk of spreading the
disease. City Farm was shut down because of its inadequate size and soil
resource. All of the buildings on the property were demolished in 1909 to make
way for the tuberculosis hospital which was proposed by the Tuberculosis Camp
Society, a national group that set up isolated camps for TB patients. This site
was chosen for the hospital because of how far away it was from the city and
because the air was cleaner so it would be easier for the patients to breathe
and hopefully recover.
Tuberculosis
became an increasingly dangerous disease because of how contagious it was. When
it was found that TB was in fact contagious in the 1880s, patients started to
be isolated in sanitariums that often resembled prisons. Nicer isolation
facilities were available for middle to upper class patients much like Pine
Camp.
The
hospital “pavilion” was the first building to be constructed on the property,
followed by an administration building and later an infirmary. The first
administrative building was demolished in 1922 but was rebuilt that same year
along with a laundry/garage building. The Central Building was later built in
1932. Other smaller buildings with unknown opening dates were the ice house,
fumigating house, storage house, stables, chicken houses/yard, and a pump
house. The Tuberculosis hospital buildings only took up about 30 acres of the
old farm land.
The hospital was first funded
privately and only allowed white patients, but in 1916 the property was turned
over to the city and plans for expansion were under way. In 1936, a new
hospital building was opened a few hundred yards away from the central building
specifically for African Americans. By 1954 there was a dramatic decline in
admissions because of new, faster treatments and because of new hospitals being
opened. The following year, Pine Camp Tuberculosis Hospital became a general
hospital and opened more beds for patients of varying illnesses. By 1956, the
city considered closing either the Pine Camp Hospital or the City Home and it was
decided to close down Pine Camp so by the end of 1957, the few remaining
patients at Pine Camp were moved to the City Home. The property sat vacant for
several years until the City Council decided to make the property into
something new. There was talk of creating a juvenile detention center or a
retirement home, but it ended up being converted into a community recreation
center. The Central Hospital building was converted into classrooms and even a
few dance studios, but in the late 1990s, the original central building was
left vacant and a new recreation center was built.
Area History: Up until the early 1900s, the
Pine Camp property was not considered to be within the Richmond City limits so
there wasn’t much out in that area except for farms. Once people started moving
into that area around the 1920s, houses, apartments, and stores started to pop
up.
What about the site has changed? The site still has the original
hospital building, welcome center/administrative building, and laundry/garage
building although the hospital building is not in use anymore even as a
recreation center so it has become very run down. Recently in an attempt to
beautify the broken, vacant hospital, the buildings were repainted. The welcome center looks the same but is not in use. The
laundry/garage building is not in use anymore either and just sits in the
center of the property. There are now other buildings on the property used for
various programs that the Pine Camp Recreation Center offers such as dance and
art classes. There is also a small soccer field and playground where the older
buildings once stood.
What about the surrounding area
has changed? The
surrounding area has changed quite a bit since the existence of the Pine Camp
Tuberculosis Hospital. People started to move into the neighborhoods
surrounding the old Hospital because the prices were relatively low and because
the landscape was beautiful. Houses and schools then needed to be built to
accommodate for the families now living there. In 1960, John Marshall High
School opened. John Marshall High is located about 350 yards from Pine Camp. In
1974, Henderson Middle School was opened which stands only a couple hundred
yards from the Pine Camp property. There are now apartments located on Old Brook
Road and Azalea Avenue bordering Pine Camp as well in the surrounding
neighborhoods. There is also a YMCA located in the same direction as the
schools but about a mile from the Pine Camp property.
Reflection: This project has really opened my
eyes to the vast history of places that I see everyday or in this case, have
even taken classes at. Whenever I would go to Pine Camp to take a class, I
would see what I now know is the old Tuberculosis Hospital and think, wow that
building is old and sort of creepy but have always wondered what it was or was
once used for. Knowing now all of the history behind that building and the rest
of the property is super interesting to me because I know that I wouldn’t have
looked very deeply into the background of that property if I hadn’t done this
project. I’ve learned that its important to look closer and do research on buildings
that you may see everyday because you might learn something really interesting
about it’s history and never look at that site the same again.
Author: Chloe Houdek
Sources:
"National
Register of Historic Places Registration Form." United States Department
of the Interior National Park Service, Richmond, VA, last modified 2003.
Digital file. http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Cities/Richmond/127-0829_Pine_Camp_Tuberculosis_Hospital_2003_Final_Nomination.pdf
"Pine
Camp." In Richmond, Virginia: Report
on a Survey of the City Government, compiled by Bureau of Municipal
Research, 700-13. 1917. https://books.google.com/books?id=TTVNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA663&dq=pine+camp+tuberculosis+hospital&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BQj2VMaYKIfFggSVqoH4Bg&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=pine%20camp&f=false
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ReplyDeleteMy great grandfather Herbert L. Seal died of TB in this building in 1933 at the age of 38.They also put his 12 year old daughter, my grandmother (Ella Seal, later Ella Schwartz 1st marriage even later Ella Weaver 2nd marriage) in with him thinking that she might have been exposed to TB also. She ran away from the hospital and went on to live life til the age of 72. (On an unrelated note, what the heck is the first poster rambling on about not even related to this post.)
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ReplyDeleteMy Grandmother Odeza Bethel died at Pine Camp in the early 1930’s. There is no place of burial listed on her death certificate except Pine Camp. She left behind my father her oldest son to raise his younger brothers. I did not know this until my father was in his 80,s I played basketball on the grounds and lived near by in Ginger Park… it was really kind of astonishing to live so close and not know this history for so long.
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