May 2, 2026
Missouri State Sanatorium
Missouri State Sanatorium was the first State Sanatorium west of the Mississippi erected to combat and treat tuberculosis. This institution initially took shape in 1901 but it wasn’t until 1905 that the group was able to get a bill passed which would fund its establishment and construction. The bill provided an initial $50,000 with the stipulation that its edifice must be located at least 1,000 feet above sea level and constructed out of brick and/or stone. Eventually, a prominent hill overlooking Mt. Vernon (Chigger Hill) was selected due to its running springs and many stately Oak trees. The cornerstone for the first building was laid on August 15, 1906. An all-day celebration was held onsite which included a “bountiful dinner spread under the shade trees”. The sanatorium opened on August 1, 1907 and admitted its first patient on August 17th of that year.
Missouri State Sanatorium was one of the finest tuberculosis hospitals in the United States for over half a century. In 1946, an effective cure for tuberculosis was finally made widely available and within a few short years the mortality rate of TB subsequently plummeted by about 90%. Evidently, however, TB remained prevalent enough, for long enough, that this hospital didn’t expand the scope of their treatment until 1971 when it began treating all types of cardiac and pulmonary diseases and the facility changed its name to the Missouri State Chest Hospital. In 1985, following various regulation changes which resulted in another dramatic decline in patient numbers, the hospital again changed their focus to become the Missouri Rehabilitation Center which was the only facility in Missouri to treat long-term patients who were seriously injured but had the capacity for rehabilitation. At some point the facility’s monopoly on long-term rehabilitation came to and end and they began operating a VA Clinic onsite. The Missouri Rehabilitation Center officially closed in 2014 but the VA Clinic continued operating until April 30, 2019.
The site has gone downhill surprisingly fast in the few years since it closed down for good; It doesn’t help that the property borders the local high school and the public identification of it by various explorers early on only made things worse. The site has also been used to host urban warfare training by local law enforcement. At the time of our visit, one of the upper floors of the main building had several inches of standing water throughout the majority of the central section-which if nothing else was a testament to the surprising waterproofing of the floor in that building. Overall, this facility is so large and its damage so extensive that I don’t see any hope of its restoration. Due to the fact that its location was selected based on its elevation rather than population, it is inconveniently located 4 hours SW of Saint Louis and 3 hours south of Kansas City. The nearest noteworthy city is Springfield, Missouri but nobody actually wants to live in, or visit, Springfield. As such, there’s no reason to be hopeful that this once highly respected and legitimately beautiful facility won’t be demolished as soon as they have the funding necessary to do so-but I would love to be wrong.
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