The Pewee Valley Sanitarium and Hospital traces its
origins to 1919, when some Seventh Day Adventist nurses, trained
at the Madison College and Sanitarium, established a small
treatment center in Louisville. In 1924, the group, headed up by
Mr. and Mrs. J.T. Wheeler, purchased a 50-acre farm in Pewee
Valley, once owned by Dr. Augustus W. Kaye.
Dr. Kaye married his wife, Virginia L. Nock, on October 23,
1856 in Jefferson County. In 1860, they were living in
Louisville Ward 4 and already had two children: Arthur, age 2
and Jane, age 1. By 1870, the Kayes were living in the
Rollington District of Oldham County (see the
Beers & Langan map) and by
1890, the family had grown to 10, with the addition of six more
children: Robert, Irene, William, Walter, Frank and John. Dr.
Kaye died in 1893 and two years later in 1895, according to
documents residing at The Filson Historical Society in
Louisville, Ky., the farm was rented for the summer by the Board
of Managers for Jennie Casseday’s Rest Cottage for Working Woman,
an inexpensive place for working women to take a much-needed
vacation in the country.
By the 1900 census, Dr. Kaye’s oldest son, Arthur, was living
on the farm with his wife, Harriet (Daviess) and two daughters,
Corrine, age 9, and Virginia, who was just a year old. By 1910,
Arthur and Hattie had moved to Louisville and had a third child,
a son, Clarke.
Virginia Kaye, seated on the lap of Rebecca Porter (Mom Beck in
the “Little Colonel” stories) played the part of Little Colonel
Lloyd Sherman in this official “Little Colonel Series” photo
taken by Kate Matthews.
The Kayes are buried in
Cave Hill Cemetery, Section 5, Lot 271. Dr.
Augustus Kaye was buried in 1893, his son Arthur in 1925,
Arthur’s wife Harriet Daviess Kaye in 1952, and Arthur and
Hattie’s three children: Corrinne Kaye Crawford in 1947, Clarke
in 1987 and Virginia Kaye Norman in 1994.
When the Seventh Day Adventists bought the Kaye farm, it
included a large, two-story log cabin that was about 100 years
old, two tenant houses and a barn. Conditions on the farm were
primitive. The cabin had no electric lights and was heated by
coal stoves. It was subsequently remodeled to include six
patient rooms, treatment rooms and a small operating room. In
the fall of 1925, the first patient was admitted and the Pewee
Valley Sanitarium & Hospital officially opened its doors. The
hospital first specialized in diet, water treatments and
service.
Originally the Kaye home, this log
cabin became the Pewee Valley Sanitarium & Hospital in 1925,
after the Seventh Day Adventists purchased the 50-acre farm the
previous year.
By 1940, the
hospital had 40 beds and 22 student nurses in training. In 1950,
it was a member of both the American Hospital and Kentucky
Hospital associations and had 17 physicians on staff, as well as
a chaplain. Twenty-six more beds were added in 1956. In May
1969, Friendship Manor Nursing Home opened on the property.
However, the little hospital, where pioneer female
photographer Miss Kate Matthews died on July 5,
1956, Hallie Burge Jacobs died on August 7,
1964, and Miss Mary Gardner Johnston died on July 16,
1966, was not able to compete with the much larger hospitals in
Louisville, according to the “History of the Pewee Valley Church
of Seventh Day Adventists:”
... Health care was becoming
big business and more complicated in their operations. Smaller
hospitals found it more and more difficult to compete with
larger institutions, with their newer and more expensive and
sophisticated equipment and facilities, together with their
expanding staffs of specialty-trained physicians and other
medical personnel, now within easy access…On March 15, (1975),
the struggling little Pewee Valley Hospital, founded and
nourished with so much “blood, sweat and tears” was forced to
close its doors.”
Pewee Valley Hospital Administrators
1925-1975
- J.T. Wheeler 1925-1943
- L.A. Butterfield
1943-1945
- A.A. Davis 1945-1952
- P.C. Dysinger 1952-1957
- Charles P. Harris, Jr. 1955-1964 (1955-61
as associate administrator)
- Paul C. Dysinger 1964-1968
- John Bullock 1964-1968
(associate administrator 2 years)
- Bob Walper, Assc. Admin. 1968-1970
- Joe Butterfield 1970-1974
- Dr. John Leland 1974-1975 (acting
administrator)
Friendship Manor Nursing Home continues to operate on the
property today
The Campbell family seated outside
the Pewee Valley Sanitarium & Hospital. From left to right, on
the bench: Don, Geneva and Leon. On the ground, Ray Campbell.
Thanks to Don Campbell, administrator of
Friendship Manor Nursing Home, for supplying the post card,
photo of the Campbell family and “History of the Pewee Valley
Church of the Seventh-Day Adventists”
page by Donna Russell
This web site is devoted to
