Ah-gwah-ching State Sanatorium, Walker, Minnesota
Ah-gwah-ching Sanatorium, Walker
Children's Building
Photo source: Minnesota Historical Society.
The Children's Building opened in 1928 on the campus of the Ah-gwah-ching Sanatorium. It was designed specifically for the treatment of tuberculous children. The first floor included an assembly room and a staff bedroom and bath. The long southern wing was divided to include a dormitory and a screened sun porch. The patients' beds could be pushed out on the porch, in keeping with the sunshine and fresh air philosophies of the times. The sanatorium decided to discontinue treating children in a separate building and, instead, encouraged families to keep their children at home to heal. The building was reconstructed and remodeled as living quarters for employees and a few ambulatory patients.
Sources: Invited and Conquered. J.A. Myers, 1949, Webb Publishing. Also, Ah-gwah-ching files in the archives of the Minnesota Historical Society.