Dr. Perry Nichols' Sanitorium

From "The Andrew County Republican," dated March 1, 1912, we find this front-page article: "The greatest thing for Savannah, in a business way, since the building of the Interurban, came this week so quietly that many of our people knew nothing of it until the site had been purchased."

Then the article told how Dr. Perry Nichols, with a nation-wide reputation as a cancer specialist, had purchased the thirty acres of the Eli Beaghler property "at the foot of Christian Ridge" and would build a cancer sanitorium there as soon as possible.

It took a year or more to build the two large frame buildings that housed the Sanitorium when it first opened for business.  During the interim, Dr. Nichols leased of the ancestral home of the Wakefield family just west of the west end of Main Street at Tenth Street.  The Wakefield house sat about half way up the hill, facing the east, and if one stood in the front door, he could see straight down Main Street to the Square and along the north side.  The house was a large Southern antebellum-type of house with three floors with fifteen rooms, maybe more.  It served Dr. Nichols' purposes well until the new buildings were completed.

After they moved to the new location, and increased business began to justify it, more land was purchased and more buildings were either bought or built until there were seven or eight buildings in the Sanitorium community.

The first unit was built in 1915 and the last one -- a three-story Nurse's Home -- was completed in 1921.  This last building is still in use.  There were three of these frame buildings that were used until 1925, when the first and buildings, used to house patients and as a treatment center, were razed and replaced by a beautiful five-story brick building, which was enlarged in 1930 by the addition of another wing on the north end of the building.  This addition was planned from the beginning so that the building would be symmetrical in appearance when completed.  When the bricks were purchased, enough bricks were bought, and stored, to make the addition when it was needed.  This was so that all of the bricks would match perfectly.

The Nichols Sanitorium had treated 3300 patients up to 1918, and by 1956 the list had grown to 70,000.  They came to Savannah from every state in the United States, and from Canada, Australia and England.  No one was turned away for lack of funds, but if a person was blessed with an abundance of this world's goods, his bill was likely to be increased somewhat to help care for those who could not pay.

Many medical doctors did not recognize the Sanitorium as a valid medical institution, but the thousands of people who came to Savannah as a last resort and almost without hope, and who left after treatment to live for many years in comfort, seemed to be sufficient proof that this place did relieve suffering and that it added years to the lives of those who were treated.

Dr. Nichols died in September 1925 and the Sanitorium passed into the hands of his daughter, Mrs. Helen Nichols Poston.  It continued in business for several years after Dr. Nichols' death.  In 1956 it was sold to the Sisters of St. Francis, an order of Catholic nuns dedicated to the care of the aged.  They came to Savannah in 1957 and established their motherhouse in the main building of the former Dr. Nichols' Sanitorium.  In a short time they began to admit elderly women to their Retirement Home on the upper floors.  The name was changed and the community "at the foot of the Christian Ridge" became La Verna Heights, which is still running today.

Thus an era was ended.  The Dr. Nichols' Sanitorium served this community and the world for a period of forty-five years.  It gave health to thousands of people; it gave work to hundreds of Savannah's residents; it gave an athletic field to the Savannah school system; its people were always the forefront of any project which the community undertook for the betterment of Savannah.  There are many people still living in Savannah who can remember when it came here, how it helped the community in so many ways, and who were sorry to see the era in Savannah's history come to an end.