Tranquille Sanatorium
Tranquille Sanatorium was built in 1907 to treat tuberculosis, which was known as the"white plague" back then.[1] Before colonization, First Nations people frequented the land for fishing and hunting near the Tranquille Lake. As the tuberculosis epidemic was spreading in the 1900s, a small community known as Tranquille was built around it. Originally, the facility was called the King Edward VII Sanatorium and served only to treat tuberculosis. The community built around the facility had gardens, houses, a gymnasium, a farm, fire department, and more facilities. In 1958, the hospital closed and was reopened in 1959 to treat the mentally ill. It closed permanently in 1983 but briefly functioned as a detention centre for young offenders until the 1990s. In September of 1991, an Italian developer, Giovanni Camporese, the president of A&A Foods, bought the land for turning it into a resort and renamed it as "Padova City" as a reminder of the place he was born. There were plans for the demolition of the site but governmental interference's and Camporese's unrelated 1997 case prevented it.
| Tranquille Sanatorium | |
|---|---|
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| Geography | |
| Location | Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada |
| Organization | |
| Type | Tuberculosis hospital, Mental hospital |
| History | |
| Opened | 1907 |
| Closed | 1983 |
| Links | |
| Lists | Hospitals in Canada |
The abandoned site is currently operated by Tranquille Farm Fresh and the acres of fertile lands are used for agriculture. Movies, such as The A-Team (film) and Firewall (film) were partly filmed here. The company on Saturdays and Sunday gives tours of the grounds and opens its infamous tunnels at Halloween with theatrics in partnership with Chimera Theatre of Kamloops, BC.
References
- Joel A. Sutherland (1 August 2014). Haunted Canada 4: More True Tales of Terror. Scholastic Inc. pp. 69+. ISBN 978-1-4431-3377-7.