Anti-Tuberculosis Colony No. 1 (McKnight State Tuberculosis Hospital)

The Handbook of Texas counts over 4,000 Texas tuberculosis deaths a year in the 1900s. A 1909 colony bill passed the Senate and died in the House; the 1911 law called for two colonies, one for advanced and one for early cases, and plans for the first were dropped. The colony opened with a barbecue on July 4, 1912, under Bascom Lynn, who commuted from San Angelo. A campus post office stamped mail 'Sanatorium, Texas' from 1919 to 1965. The Handbook dates the conversion to the San Angelo State School to 1969.

What the plaque says

In 1911 the Texas Legislature passed a law calling for the establishment of state institutions for the treatment of tuberculosis. Founded across the highway in 1912, the Anti-Tuberculosis Colony No. 1 opened with facilities for 57 patients on a 330-acre tract of land. The Tuberculosis Nursing School was founded here in 1915, and by 1961 had graduated 500 male and female nurses. The colony developed into a self-sustaining community with an average population of 2,000. Housed in 36 buildings on 992 acres of land, the institution included a post office, library, public school, power plant, dairy, vegetable garden, bakery and butcher shops. It was renamed the State Sanatorium in 1919. Most patients were in residence for nine months. At its height the Sanatorium proved a treatment capacity for 950 adults and 250 children. The institution was renamed McKnight State Tuberculosis Hospital in 1955 in honor of Dr. J. B. McKnight, superintendent from 1914 to 1950. The advent of anti-tubercular drugs and thoracic surgery altered the treatment of tuberculosis and eventually the institution closed in 1971. Fifty thousand adults and 5,000 children received treatment here. (1997)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Angelo State Park — 13 mi
  A 7,677-acre park around O.C. Fisher Reservoir on the edge of San Angelo, where four Texas landscapes meet and the state's official longhorn herd grazes beside a bison paddock.
• Concho River Walk — 16 mi
  Four miles of lit trails along the North Concho through downtown San Angelo, rebuilt after voters taxed themselves in 2004, with gardens, sculpture, a river stage and stocked trout.
• Miss Hattie's Bordello Museum — 16 mi
  The upstairs rooms on Concho Avenue where a brothel ran from 1902 until the Texas Rangers closed it in 1952, shown on short guided tours with most of the furnishings original.
• San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts — 17 mi
  A free art museum on the Concho beside Fort Concho, founded in the fort's 1868 quartermaster building and known nationally for its biennial ceramics competition.

More markers nearby

• World War I Peace Monument — 5.4 mi
• Sheep and Goat Industry in Texas — 9.3 mi
• Arden Community — 13 mi
• Cornick Bungalows — 16 mi