The old Glenn Dale Hospital served as a tuberculosis sanatorium during the 1930s-1950s. In this episode, author JL Gillham shares her experience visiting there as a teen. Today, the hospital is still fascinating historians and paranormal investigators.
Get your copy of her short story “Haunting Happily Ever After” here.
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Books mentioned in the episode:
(affiliate links)
Princess Claus and the Great Escape by JL Gillham
The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine N. Aron
Other Mentions:
Wellness While Walking Podcast
The History of Glenn Dale Hospital, Maryland
The Glenn Dale Hospital in Maryland was built to accommodate an overwhelming number of tuberculosis patients from Washington DC in the 1930s. Because the hospitals in the city had become overcrowded, patients were sent to neighboring hospitals like the Glenn Dale Hospital in Maryland. Built in 1934, the hospital’s sole purpose was to tend to tuberculosis patients and keep the horrible disease from spreading.
At the time, an effective treatment of tuberculosis was still unknown. Because of this people were often quarantined, for fear that the disease would spread. Many would live out their lives in sanitoriums. Many family members of those diagnosed would pretend that their loved one had died.
The popular treatment for tuberculosis at the time was spending time outside in the fresh air. That’s why Glenn Dale was built on a 216 acre lot. It consisted of 23 buildings, separated by sprawling lawns. There were rooftop gardens for the patients to tend to. When weather permitted, all patient activity took place outside.
Glenn Dale was home to tuberculosis patients until the 1950s, when antibiotics became more widely available and proved to be a better treatment for the illness. In an article by Leah Y. Latimer in The Washington Post, she explains her mother’s experience at the facility, when it was believed that she had “the white plague,” as TB was often referred to in those days. Though her mother didn’t express many of the common symptoms, she was told she had TB. She’d had numerous family members and friends who suffered, some of whom died at Glenn Dale. Her mother was pregnant with her at the time, and would go into labor during her time at Glenn Dale. She was delivered at a nearby hospital, but her mother wasn’t allowed to hold or touch her. Her family told others that she was suffering a nervous breakdown because in those days, people didn’t tell others that a family member had TB. But it turned out that she didn’t have it. After she returned home, she wondered if she’d been exposed and this fear kept her from experiencing a lifetime of hugs and closeness with her children.
In 1960, Glenn Dale was turned into a nursing home and hospital for impoverished patients. It was closed in 1981 because of high levels of asbestos.
Abandoned hospitals lend themselves to local legends. Legend goes that it was once an insane asylum or maybe even a prison.
Today, the old Glenn Dale Tuberculosis Sanitorium is frequented by teens, ghost hunters, and the other curious legend trippers.
Nowadays, police monitor the site, and people are not allowed in the buildings. But the dark history of the Glenn Dale Hospital still intrigues historians and storytellers today.
Many thanks to our special guest, JL Gillham.
Produced by Vanessa K. Eccles.
Music by Kevin MacLeod and Epidemic Sound (paid licenses).
Special Guest, JL Gillham.
