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Homeopathic sanitarium called Bloomington home in early 1900s
By Bill Kemp
Archivist/Librarian McLean County Museum of History
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BLOOMINGTON — From 1894 to 1920, one of the largest and most successful hospitals in Bloomington-Normal was a homeopathic sanitarium run by the husband-and-wife team of George and Annie Kelso. | From Our Past page

Homeopathy, which dates to the work of German physician Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), is a curious form of alternative medicine that reached semi-respectability in the latter half of the 1800s and early 1900s.

Homeopaths believe, among other things, that a disease can be treated by administering low dosages of a substance that, when given in much higher doses to healthy individuals, produces symptoms of that very same disease. Though that seems counterintuitive, this “law of similars” (or “like cures like”) is a basic tenet of homeopathy, as is the idea that ill health is caused by disturbances in one’s vital (or life) force.

The Kelso Sanitarium, located north of downtown Bloomington on Main Street, employed an eclectic mix of medical practices ranging from the harmless (homeopathic cures) to the dangerous (the use of bizarre electrical devices that bordered on quackery) to the professional (a well-regarded obstetrics department).

This self-described “private sanitarium and surgical hospital,” according to an 1896 advertisement, treated “paralysis, rheumatism, diseases of women, diseases of the eye, fitting of glasses, deafness, rectal diseases, catarrh, facial blemishes and diseases of the stomach, heart and lungs.”

Born in Ontario, Canada, George B. Kelso attended medical school at the University of Michigan. It was there that he met his future wife, Annie E. Caldwell, who had already attended the Women’s Medical College in Philadelphia. In 1886, the two graduated from Michigan, and soon thereafter married and settled in Bloomington.

In 1894, the couple established the Bloomington Home Sanitarium, later renamed the Kelso Sanitarium, at 807 N. Main St. They made several additions to the former wood frame residence, and within a few years, their institution featured an elevator, steam heat and other “modern conveniences.” In 1916, the Kelsos purchased the lot immediately to the south and built a modern, four-story brick addition, enlarging the hospital to 85 rooms.

The sanitarium promised to cure all sorts of maladies with all sorts of bizarre devices. In 1896, the Kelsos trumpeted the arrival of the “vibrometer,” a device to relieve “catarrhal deafness” and “noises in the head” via “massage of the ear by musical sounds.”

By 1908, the Kelsos boasted of “mechanical, electrical, hydropathic and light appliances for the treatment of chronic and nervous diseases.” Their fantastical roster of medical machinery employed “static, galvanic, faradic, sinusoidal and high frequency electricity,” as well as “violet rays, solar rays and X-rays.”

On the other hand, many of their homeopathic treatments were of the more new age variety. “Baths! Baths! Baths!” announced one Kelso advertisement. “Electric, vapor, hot air, medicated, perfumed and salt glows. These baths are curative in disease; pleasant and invigorating in health. We have first-class attendants. Give them a trial.”

At this time, with middle- and upper-middle-class separating themselves from the world of hard labor, medical problems were often more a matter of anxiety and psychological-social stress. It’s no surprise, then, that George and Annie Kelso catered to the needs of this increasingly needy clientele. The sanitarium also benefited from the trend among expectant middle-class mothers to favor hospital over at-home births.

The Kelsos also operated a successful — and by all accounts professional — nurse training school. In 1920, the Kelsos sold their hospital to the Mennonite Sanitarium Association, which in short order became the Mennonite Hospital. According to contemporary news accounts, the price tag was in the $75,000 to $100,000 range, or $900,000 to $1.2 million in today’s dollars.

In the 1980s, Mennonite and Brokaw Hospital in Normal merged health-care systems, and in 1991 Brokaw became BroMenn Regional Medical Center and Mennonite a “life care” center. The old Mennonite complex was then sold in the late 1990s, and today serves as headquarters for Electrolux Home Care North America.

Annie Kelso died on Jan. 5, 1927, and George followed eight years later.

Interestingly, the Kelso Sanitarium’s 1916 brick addition is still visible from Main Street, though it’s partially obscured by the trees behind the Electrolux sign.

It’s also worth mentioning that the Mennonites continued to operate the nursing school started by the Kelsos. That program survives today as the Mennonite College of Nursing at Illinois State University.

Take a look
The Kelso Sanitarium as it appeared circa 1917. The building in the foreground was razed to make way for Mennonite Hospital, but the brick addition to the right survives and is used today by Electrolux. (Photo courtesy of the McLean County Museum of History)
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Reader comments on this story - 4 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

apollyon wrote on Jun 1, 2008 2:21 PM:

" that this scam lives on today amazes me. "

The Irascible Fachna wrote on May 31, 2008 10:38 PM:

" A homeopath was complicit in the demise of Warren G. Harding; except to the extent of her enthusiasm for homeopathy, Harding's wife was innocent. "

bob61744 wrote on May 31, 2008 10:22 PM:

" Meh,...some famous fans of Homeopathy are the British Royal Family: Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles.

Pantagraph, you forgot to mention 1 item on the Kelso Sanitarium. Its most famous patient born there was George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party. In the 60s and 70s, Nazis would travel to Bloomington and place wreaths at Mennonite(Kelso) Hospital on Rockwell's birthday. It was covered every year in the Pantagraph. "

Meh wrote on May 31, 2008 9:29 PM:

" Amazing that today, in the United States, that there are people who still subscribe to the tenets of Homeopathic medicine. "
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