Hickory Grove: The expansion

Continued from previous week

In February 1915, Hickory Grove began taking its first patients.

The following year, the community came together once again and through paid subscription purchased a 25-foot boat — the MINNIE S. — for the facility, which was big enough for 15 passengers.

Weeks later a motor was purchased for the boat.

The boat was renamed “Old Hickory” and floated in the Fox River as “a monument to the splendid spontaneity and spirit of broadmindedness of the true American, an unselfish acknowledgment of the material needs of unfortunate fellow American,” patients and staff stated in a thank you letter published in the Press-Gazette that year.

In October 1921, with tuberculosis still claiming lives, Brown County physicians, the women’s clubs of De Pere and Green Bay, county board representatives Hickory Grove trustees and other interested regional community members met to discuss enlarging the facility and including Door and Kewaunee counties, which was supported by the Wisconsin Anti-Tuberculosis Association.

It wasn’t until 1926, however, that the county board began work on expansion to accommodate a growing waiting list.

There was much debate over where to build the new facility, but the state board and the community eventually decided on the same property as the first building.

In March 1927, the Brown County Board voted to borrow $250,000 to build the additional structure, which would be a three-story building with three sets of bathrooms on each floor and sun porches on the front and ends.

On the third floor, an open plaza area would lead to the bell tower, with a bell that would toll every hour.

Once constructed, a 45-foot tunnel would connect the old building with the new.

The original building was to remain on the property to house the staff, but as transportation became a household option, workers began to commute.
In September 1929, the 43 patients at the facility were moved to the new building.

By March of 1936, 100 tuberculosis patients were being attended to at the facility.

Earlier that year, the county took advantage of the Works Progress Administration — which created jobs during the Great Depression — to remodel and repair the old building to segregate the more severe cases from the less-affected patients.

In December of 1956, with a max capacity of 86, the patient number sat at 80, while the facility played host to patients from other counties in Northeast Wisconsin.

In 1955, Hickory Grove was one of just 18 county sanatoria in the state.

By 1957, that number was down to 17.

In 1971, the second floor of the sanatorium was converted into a nursing home facility.

“The patient population at the facility has declined regularly in recent years because of diagnosing, treating and preventing tuberculosis and currently the staff at the sanatorium outnumbers its patients by two to one,” a Dec. 15, 1971, Press-Gazette article stated.

Conclusion in next week’s edition