Tuberculosis Thursday: Stony Wold Sanatorium

As we mark the last Tuberculosis Thursday of Women's History Month, we want to share a bit about Stony Wold Sanatorium. Stony Wold was started by Elizabeth Newcomb to serve as a sanatorium for underprivileged young women suffering from TB. It opened on Lake Kushaqua in 1901, and at its peak in the 1930s it consisted of 20 buildings and a farm, and generated its own electricity.

Thousands came to cure at Stony Wold, including Lillian Synoracki Wilczak, who is pictured, waving, at bottom left in this group photo in the late 1920s. The Sanatorium also treated children, and eventually allowed some men. Elizabeth Newcomb died of tuberculosis in 1938 and was buried on the property. Stony Wold closed in 1955.
Learn more about Stony Wold and some of the women in its history on our wiki.

[Historic Saranac Lake Collection, TCR 638. Courtesy of Karen Jacobs.]