Ontario's Forgotten Landmarks: Muskoka Sanitorium

what a neat place.. what's up with the cheesy 90's photoshop effects on every photo?

Awesome.

Corina - it's in the North end of Muskoka, Ontario (I believe it's the North end...).

jonathan@blogTO

Isn't this whole aesthetic of abandonment thing done yet?

My grandparents met here - both patients...

Hi Jonathan,
As someone who enjoys UE with my partner - to photograph and explore, not to destroy - I appreciate the effects that you have used to show your experience with the building and the emotions you felt.
Everyone is entitled to their own view of a opinion.
My opinion is that these photographs seem to be crafted with love and are pleasant to look upon.
Good exploration, keep it up.

Stunning photos.

this is lame yiou shoukd have liek mountians seriouly man i am going to die i likw to read adn is o

Hello Johnathan: Looking at these pictures brought up all kinds of emotions. Facination, sadness, nostalgia and anger, to name a few. It felt like I was looking at pictures of the Titanic after it went down. I have been in every nook and cranny of this place. I worked there in the 70's, 80's and 90's, when it was called Muskoka Centre. It was an institution for the developmentally challenged. The pictures are beautiful to look at but it's easy to remember that people lived, worked and also died in this building. It was one of the worst jobs I've ever had and also, probably, the best. To know that I have walked in every room that your pictures depict gives me a sense of surrealism. My favorite is the one looking down the stairwell, from the fifth floor. I used to do that all the time!!! I have sent the pictures to myself so that I, at least, have some record of where I spent some of the most formative years of my life and to hold onto some of the many memories. This was my first job out of high school, and I'm still in the field. It's been 30 years now!! Thanks for posting them!!

These photos really angered me! My grandparents worked at this sanitorium , my mother was a patient there,and years later I worked as a residential councellor when it was called Muskoka Center. I am angry at the fact that after spending millions of dollars on renovations the gov't allowed this place ( for the second time in its history) to rot and get into this condition. It was a beautiful place on a penninsula of land on Lake Muskoka. After it ceased as a TB sanitorium it was allowed to sit and rot and some of the buildings had to be torn down. Now it has been left again. It is hard to imagine from these photos just how beautiful this place was. It is so sad.

Thanks Lee Ann for identifying the location. Been looking for info on the Gravenhurst TB sanatorium. My wife is searching for her grandfather's grave site and this is where he died suffering from TB. Is there a graveyard at the sanatorium for those that died there or would they have been buried in a Gravenhurst cemetery?

For the gentleman looking for burial of his relatives from the sanitarium, possibly Mickel Memorial Cemetary on what used to be called the San rd. This is the road that leads to the sanitarium
This is also the cemetary where the German POW's were buried, but I believe were relocated back to Germany some years ago along with the hand carved wooden grave markers.
I used to live on that road close to the Ontario Fire College which was the original tb sanitarium, so I am told.

I am looking for a relative that died at the sanitarium there in 1939, I have looked through all the gravemarkers all over muskoka district, with no luck, I am assuming that the family could not afford to pay for a headstone at that time. Is there anyone or anywhere I can go to see where his remains are.The family would be most grateful.

Its so interesting to see the pictures. My grandmother who was born in Scotland had received a scholarship to learn nursing by working at this sanitorium. Back then, they didn't learn nursing through schools. It was more like on the job training. Unfortunately, she passed away before I was born so I never got to hear the stories of what it was like there.

Hello all:
I'm SO GLAD I found this site.....my story is that my Dad met my Mom in the sanitorium.. married upon discharge.
I know my Dad had the last radical lung surgery done there. I believe they removed a large amt. of one of his lungs...
I think in total.. between them......they were there for about 15 yrs. My Dad (not sure if he started it or not).. but wrote/edited the Gravenhurst Sun... the in-house paper for quite a few years. He would edit others contributions/gave all the "new admissions/releases and deaths in each issue. I unfortunately left home quite young... so we didn't talk a lot about it... but prior to my Mom's passing.. she sent me a bound book with a lot of the papers he produced. They were both very musical.. my Mom trained/my Dad.. could sit at a piano and play something note for note after the very first time he heard it. It was definitely a bond of theirs that lasted until their respective deaths. When we were young.. (a bjillion yrs.ago)we spent a # of summers at the home of Dr. Ross who was one of the dr's. there for a very long time. This goes back a very long time ago.....but.. thought it might be interesting. I saw the building many times before.. well.. certainly the way it looks now....
Thank you so much for allowing me to express and most importantly REMEMBERING.................
All take good care..........

i wish i new i am not sure i know that now they just use parts of it for opp training i was there a couple months ago and was taking pictures outside i was unable to go in the police said that it was unsafe.

has the building been demolished or is it still standing? is it abandon still or are there construction crews? great pictures

I believe the original TB sanitarium was the property that the Ontario Fire College is now occupying,
My parents owned the home across the road from the College and I was told it was the original nurses residence.
While renovating it in the 60's we found old newspapers behind the plaster dating 1890's.

So I have been told

Doug

My Mother was a resident of the hospital from 1944-1949, she kept a small autograph book that she had people sign, I still have it as well as a picture of her with some friends. Some names include, Bailey, Sosak, Latte, Cronkey, Man, Neyland, Migwans, Johnson, Cleary, Zettler, Hurst, Wright, King, The Beanery Gang, Bacheller, Brooks, Hayward, Dawson, LeBarron, Fredon, Lauttit, Blakely,Sanderson,Pinkerton, Clarke,James,Smith, Lewis, Stanyk, Quinn, Knolt? or Snolt, Gervais, Gingras, Lavigne. I have looked everywhere for records pertaining to the San, but have had no luck so far as I had a Grandmother there later who passed away. Does anyone know of a patient named Alexandre?
PS if I have posted a relative and you would like more info, please contact me at address given.

Most of the sanitarium records were stored at the Westpark hospital in Toronto. Most of the patients who passed away there would have been buried in Lakeview cemetery in Gravenhurst, and as many of these people were destitute and had no funds, they were buried without gravemarkers. We do have records of interments for many of these patients and burial locations, so please contact me at the cemetery office in Gravenhurst and I will try to assist you. 705-687-3412 . On another matter, the German P.O.W's that passed away in Gravenhurst (2) were re-interred in Woodlawn cemetery in Kitchener, On. along with other P.O.W's that passed away in Canada during W.W.2

This is a complete shame how the government has let these buildings deteriorate. I started working at Muskoka Centre as a summer student back in the mid seventies. After graduating from the MRC course I worked there until it closed. My mother worked there back in around 1960. It was a great place to work. I would love to take a tour of the buildings. There is so much history in those walls. Many stories to be told.

Hello, I am doing some historical research on the old Sanitorium as I am from Gravenhurst and my Mum grew up on the site as a child of one of the employees. I would like to connect with people whose family members may have been patients or might have worked at the San. My email address is andrea.baston@sympatico.ca

Hi Trudy: My father Colin Wright was a patient there in the 40's. I'm wondering if he is in the picture you said you had of your grandmother as you mentioned a "wright" had signed an autograph book.

For those of you like Andrea interested in the San history there is a great downloadable pdf file at

http://www.cbmh.ca/index.php/cbmh/article/view/1238/1229

that has very good pictures and is a focus on the architectural side of the San. It is interesting to me how we adopted the British notion of calling these institutional buildings 'cottages.' It may have been appropriate in Muskoka but location didn't matter as large brick buildings at HRC were also designated as 'cottages' but there was nothing cottagy about them. They held large open dormitory rooms and shower areas designed for mass showers and rows of exposed toilets.

Its nowhere near the north end of Muskoka. Its actually in Gravenhurst, the southern most point of the region. Its used (or at least it was used) as a training facility for the OPP special forces and Ontario Fire College.