Thornney Sanatorium

Thornney Sanatorium

Location: Carroll County, MD - Status: Abandoned

Thornney Sanatorium was erected in 1922 by the Maryland Board of Mental Hygiene. It was established as a facility to
treat African Americans suffering from tuberculosis. This was one of the first such facilities in Maryland erected to provide
African Americans with the same level of treatment as whites.

The original complex opened in 1922 and consisted of 6 main buildings and one utility plant. These buildings were erected
between the years of 1921 and 1923. The establishment of the Thornney Sanatorium was one of the final steps in
Maryland's program to treat all of the state's tubercular patients. In the late twenties and early thirties the tuberculosis rate
among African Americans in Maryland was quadruple what the rate was among whites. This placed a heavy burden on the
hospital to deal with the increasing number of patients. In 1938 the hospital was budgeted $270,000 for the construction of
new buildings to house 200 more patients. The new buildings roughly doubled the size of the overall facility, and several
more municipal buildings added even more space to the complex. However, by the time the new buildings were completed in
1946, the tuberculosis rates had dropped, leaving much more room than was necessary.

In 1963 the Maryland Board of Mental Hygiene and the Department of Health merged to become the Maryland Department
of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH). As part of the act that created the new department, Thornney Sanatorium became
the Thornney State Hospital Center. The hospital ended operations as a tuberculosis treatment facility and was converted to
serve as a facility for the training and habilitation of “severely and profoundly retarded ambulatory residents ages eighteen
and over”. The Maryland DHMH decided to end the training program in 1984 because of the low numbers of enrollment
and residents. In 1985, TSHC had fewer than 100 resident patients and operations at the center were being phased out. By
the fall of 1985, the facility was emptied, locked, boarded up, and closed for good.
* Note: Thornney Sanatorium is an alias

Jim O'Connor Photography

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