Editor’s note: An updated version of this post can be viewed here.

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Former Midwood Sanatorium, now CAMBA offices
Address: 19 Winthrop Street
Cross Streets: Flatbush and Bedford avenues
Neighborhood: Prospect Lefferts Gardens
Year Built: 1928-1929
Architectural Style: Colonial Revival
Architect: Philip M. Erickson
Other Buildings by Architect: Mostly small projects, like garages, in Brooklyn
Landmarked: No

The story: The first Midwood Sanatorium was a four story wood-framed building built at this location, on Winthrop, near the corner of Flatbush Avenue. Like many small hospitals, the building was probably a private house, repurposed as a sanatorium. Period maps show the grounds of the hospital were quite large, as the buildings now on Flatbush weren’t there then. Northern Flatbush was just starting to see real urban style development, and only blocks away, the row houses of Lefferts Manor were being built. The neighborhood needed a private hospital, and Midwood opened its doors in 1907.

The word “sanatorium” brings to mind a mental hospital or a place where private patients could have quiet surgeries or recover from embarrassing things like out-of-wedlock pregnancies, but the word as Americans use it, usually meant a hospital for long term stays, generally because of tuberculosis. The words “sanatorium” and “sanitarium” are interchangeable.

Brooklyn had quite a few private sanatoria, but from the entries in the papers regarding this hospital, it seems to have been more of a regular hospital for the area. If anything, it seemed to specialize in obstetrics and also longer term conditions. Cradle to grave, as it were. Nearby Kings County Hospital was not in existence yet. That institution was still the city’s almshouse in 1907. Caledonia Hospital had not yet been established at that time, either.

Unfortunately for the community, the building seemed to catch fire a lot. Between opening and 1929, they had four serious fires. The last, a fire that started on the roof and top floor in 1928, caused an evacuation of 34 adult patients and 12 babies, plus staff. The entire fourth floor and roof were beyond repair. That was it for the trustees, and they began to advocate for a new fireproof brick and stone building.

They hired a little-known architect named Philip M. Erickson to design a new hospital. This may have been his largest project. He provided them with a nice, respectable building which could hold considerably more patients and staff. It was finished in 1929, and immediately began accepting patients. The new hospital had 57 beds and its top floor was reserved for surgeries. The offices and examining rooms of the obstetrics was up there, as were the operating rooms.

One of the highlights of the new facilities was the painting of the walls of the rooms in bright and cheery colors. It was thought that such stimulation would promote clearness of breath and lungs. Plus it was a relief from endless white walls.

The Midwood Sanatorium, or Midwood Hospital, cared for Flatbush patients for many years. The births and deaths of patients, the death or retirement of staff members, doctors and nurses over the years were dutifully reported in the papers. Many people born in the 1950s who comment on local Flatbush blogs were born there. One posted a photo of his parents standing in front of the building in 1954. That is below.

The facility didn’t close down until the late 1970s. According to one source, this was the site of the St. Johns Elementary School, a private school, from 1979 to 2000. Today, it’s one of the health and social service resources of CAMBA, the city’s largest nonprofit social services entity.

(Photo: Nicholas Strini for PropertyShark)

GMAP

1906 map. New York Public Library
1906 map. New York Public Library
1916 map. New York Public Library
1916 map. New York Public Library
1954 photo of Mr. and Mrs. Diamond. Posted on Brooklyn Memories FB page, reblogged on flatbushed.com.
1954 photo of Mr. and Mrs. Diamond. Posted on Brooklyn Memories FB page, reblogged on flatbushed.com.
Photo: Google Maps. "Midwood Sanatorium" visible above door.
Photo: Google Maps. “Midwood Sanatorium” visible above door.

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