LAKE GENEVA — I recently discovered something about a Wisconsin town that was both interesting and a little shocking.
When most people think about Lake Geneva, they think about the beautiful homes along the lake. But at the same time as some of the first mansions were being built, Lake Geneva was known for something else: sanitariums.
From 1885 to 1930, there were five sanitariums in Lake Geneva. The sanitariums mostly acted like hospitals for those with cognitive and developmental disabilities, speech impediments, addiction recovery, postpartum depression, ADHD, or other types of nervous disorders. People were put in them for good and bad purposes.
Some people were “ladies who were incorrigible or spoke against their husbands or their families," Sonja Akright said. She works at the Geneva Lake Museum and wrote the book 'The Sanitariums of Lake Geneva'. There's an exhibit on sanitariums at the museum.
These facilities were upscale. There were no straight jackets or metal cots. Patients had their own rooms, some had private bathrooms, and there were private dining halls, and parlors. The weekly rates in the late 1800s and early 1900s started around $50, which would be about $2,000 today.
“So like the medical facility was basically a hospital you could check yourself in, and it was for injuries, things of that nature. The mental institution, the insane asylum, was more where people from outside of town would tuck their folks to be away," Akright said.
It's where the wealthy from all over the country sent their family members.
“We don’t want this around our family or our society, and then being that it was in Lake Geneva, the resort town kind of made them feel better about it.”
Dr. Oscar King started four of the five sanitariums in Lake Geneva. He was a psychiatrist and neurologist. There were mental institutions, surgery clinics, and a general hospital. No lobotomies were performed at these facilities; however, doctors would drill into patients' skulls. On the other hand, patients also experienced equine therapy which was relatively unconventional for the time period.
"Theres a lot of ghost stories around the 40s, 50s, and 60s about lobotomies and the things that were happening there that were absolutely not true. The more I studied (Dr. King), the more I found he was not a horrible person. He was not doing horrible things to these people" Akright said.
The sanitariums brought a ton of money to the town. When these wealthy families would visit their loved ones, they would shop at the stores. The tax revenue also supported Lake Geneva. But given what sanitariums represented, not all locals liked them, especially when there were tragic deaths.
“Because (patients) did roam free, so they would roam down the train tracks, so someone would get hit," Akright said. “People would walk down to the lake. They would jump off piers and drown.”
There was also a children’s sanitarium with a pretty big scandal.
“So what happened was some nurses decided to take two children hostage for their back pay," Akright said.
They called the Chicago Tribune which wrote a story about the incident. However, the plan didn't work for them. The two nurses were jailed and didn't get their backpay.
Eventually, all five of the sanitariums closed by 1930. The kind of care offered became outdated.
“Thinking about kinder, compassionate care, we were moving away from the astigmatism (sic) of having to hide these people and not being able to talk about it to putting them into day programs trying to incorporate them into the world," Akright said.
After decades of neglect, vacancy, and a few fires, three of the buildings were eventually demolished. One of those demolished buildings was well known in the community since young kids would sneak in and explore its remnants. Gary Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, wrote in a newspaper article how some of his experiences exploring the sanitarium influenced parts of the legendary game.
Watch the story to see more images of Lake Geneva's luxurious sanitariums
Two of the buildings still stand today. There is the Baker Hoouse, which is a restaurant, and the children's sanitarium, which is a private Airbnb.
Akright is still discovering new material about the sanitariums. She will update the museum's exhibit by the end of 2025 to reflect all the new information. The current exhibit is open Friday through Monday during the winter. Those times will expand in the spring and summer.
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