TB: Forgotten plague of Marquette
And so it was that the County and State decided to build the Morgan Heights TB Sanatorium under the supervision of Dr. Frederick McDonnel Harkin, the first TB treatment center in the U.P. Funding was voted on in November 1909, construction started in 1910 and the facility opened on May 1, 1911 to great fanfare.
TB had been around since 500 B.C.E, a lingering disease that at one point caused 2% of all deaths. Many well-known people contracted it, such as Marie Curie and Alexander Graham Bell and still more died from it, including President James Monroe and Frederick Chopin.
Part of the reason Morgan Heights Sanatorium was so needed was because it used the most effective and modern of treatments. The ancient Greeks and Romans had their own methods of curing TB, such as drinking wolf’s blood and bathing in the urine of the infected. Later treatments included drinking radium-filled water. Some families even had their children eat a dozen eggs per day in place of antibiotics!
But, as stated above, Morgan Heights was different. It was a pleasant place, encouraging its patients to sit outside, smell the pine trees and just relax as they recovered. People flocked to Marquette to “chase the cure” in pursuit of the wondrous sanatorium, supposedly the “key to wellness.”
Morgan Heights turned into a refuge of last resort if you were among the infected. It had wide, spacious rooms, screened in porches, pleasant gardens and much more. It was entirely self-sustaining, growing its own food and keeping its own livestock for dairy. The occupants celebrated the holidays and became like a family of their own, enjoying each day with the knowledge that they may not see another.
Despite their successes, Morgan Heights still had its share of death. Most sanitariums before it were known for their death and the bleak time before it came. The main idea was to isolate patients from all those who were healthy and wait for recovery, if you were lucky enough to get it.
These spaces meant for patients to recover were known as “waiting rooms for death,” a place where you are were separated from those you love as your final days approached.
Morgan Heights was an anomaly in its ability to make its patients feel at home. Though family and friends were not normally allowed to visit, the sanatorium did all it could to make its occupants feel welcome and comfortable. In the relatively long time that Morgan Heights was open, it succeeded.
Morgan Heights was a great gift to those of the U.P. and beyond for more than 60 years. In 1971, it was renamed the Acocks Medical facility, still caring for TB patients until 1976 when it was declared a long term health care facility. Located off Marquette County Road 492, one can still see the nurses’ dormitory, which lives on as a rental house, although the original building was torn down.
Even back then, our city was a place for people to recoup, recover and relax. And though another disease racked our town and took beloved community members with it, Marquette maintains its reputation for being such a beacon of health and happiness through hard times.