Lake Erie Sanitarium in Sandusky

Dr. Burnett Roswell Hubbard was the son of Emmett and Delight Hubbard, born in the state of New York about 1853. On February 12 and 13, 1896, an advertisement for Dr. B. Roswell Hubbard’s “Lake Erie Sanitarium” appeared in a program for a charity opera, “Egypta” that was featured at the Nielsen Opera House in Sandusky. Dr. B. Roswell Hubbard was a physician educated in the field of eclectic medicine, a field of medicine popular for its botanical remedies and use of physical therapy. The Lake Erie Sanitarium, located at 927 West Washington Street, claimed to be “New and complete in all its departments,” and offered patients treatment for medical and surgical cases and provided therapeutic baths of all kinds. The building was complete with heat, an electric bell system, and an elevator.

While living in Sandusky, Dr. B. Roswell Hubbard wrote a paper on “Modern Gynecology” for the Transactions of the National Eclectic Medical Association of the U.S.A., For the Years 1896-1897. By 1913, Dr. Hubbard had moved to California, where he was a professor of surgery at the California Medical College of Los Angeles. In 1911, he authored a book entitled Hubbard's Practical Surgery.

Dr. B. Roswell Hubbard had a brother who also was a physician. Dr. Rockwell B. Hubbard started his medical practice in Sandusky in 1896, and he continued in that practice for more than fifty years. Dr. Rockwell B. Hubbard’s office was in the Graham building for many years, and later he moved to an office on Hancock Street. Dr. R. B. Hubbard was listed as the surgeon for the Big Four Railroad in the 1912 Sandusky City Directory. It is quite easy to confuse the two brothers, as they often went by their initials, Dr. B. R. Hubbard and Dr. R.B. Hubbard.

See Supplement Number 16 in Helen Hansen’s book At Home in Early Sandusky to read more about the building located at what is now 609 West Washington Street in Sandusky. Prior to the Dr. B. Roswell Hubbard’s sanitarium, Dr. Edwin Gillard also had a sanitarium at this location. After Dr. B. Roswell Hubbard moved to California, a boarding house was in operation at the site of the former sanitarium.