Town of Georgina
The Sanitarium at Jackson's Point
By Jeanne Hopkins
Sibbald, a boarding operating at Jackson's Point in the early 1920's, was bought, in 1924, by Mrs. E.L. Bonnick of Toronto and donated to the Samaritan Club of that city.
The Valdai Rest Home, named for Bonnick's daughter, opened on June 14, 1924 as a retreat for those afflicted with tuberculosis and their families.
North America's first fresh-air sanatorium was opened at Siranae Lake, New York, in response to the findings of two Gerrnan doctors who advocated plenty of rest and fresh air (preferably beside a lake) for the treatment of tuberculosis.
Sir William Gage of Toronto had donated $25 000.00 towards the cost of a sanatorium and offered the use of his cottage in Muskoka. There was no response from the public until Fred Victor Massey, a member of one of Toronto's more prominently social families, contracted the disease. Hart Massey, a great philanthropist, heard of Gage's offer and offered to match his donation. Two years later, the National Sanitarium Association was formed and the Muskoka Cottage Hospital opened in 1897 at Gravenhurst.
Soon a second hospital was needed and, in 1902, the Muskoka Free Hospital was built, for those who could not afford treatment costs. These two facilities did not come close to meeting the needs; the incidence of tuberculosis increasing after the outbreak of the first World War within troops on active duty.
William Gage bought the Dennis farm in Weston and opened a sanatorium there - in 1904. It was called the Toronto Free Hospital for Consumptives ("consumptive" referring to the fact that tuberculosis was a fatal disease).
Around 1912, the Samaritan Club was formed with the typical volunteer member being wealthy and socially prominent; men and women who could use their influence and position to bring the disease out into the open.
Sir Albert and Lady Gooderham donated money to build the first preventorium in North America which opened in 1913 in North Toronto. In 1914, a walk-in dispensary was set up on College Street - later was the Gage Institute.
With transportation of patients to the hospitals in Muskoka becoming difficult, and the burning of the hospital in 1920, Mrs. Bonnick contributed to the cost of a new property - at Cheltenham on the Credit River In 1924, this property was sold and Glen Sibbald was bought for $15 000.00.
The Samaritans fell that Glen Sibbald offered many advantages - therapeutic breezes off Lake Simcoe, good buildings, and the Metropolitan Radial Railway cars stopped at the gate.
Proceeds from the Christmas Seals campaigns, started in 1908, were used for the treatment of tuberculosis. The hospitals have gradually closed.
Glen Sibbald continued to operate until 1948. That year, up to 300 mothers and their children enjoyed holidays there.
Source: Georgina Advocate - Our History December 1992. Reproduced with permission