PINES PREVENTORIUM

THE PINES PREVENTORIUM was established in 1929 for the children of tuberculosis (TB) patients who lived in The Pines, a TB Sanitarium located on Greenwood Road (U. S. Hwy. 80) nine miles outside the city of Shreveport, Louisiana. It was founded in 1916 as a rest camp by Mrs. Meyer Benson, director of the Shreveport Tuberculosis League, teaching patients how to care for themselves and at the same time protecting their families against infection.

The children of the TB patients were naturally separated from their parents and lived in a house on the grounds cared for by a physician and a nurse. They were scrawny, undernourished and potential victims of the disease. The Shreveport Medical Society Auxiliary established a school for these children, providing lessons, activities, celebrating birthdays and holidays with them beginning in February 1930. Fundraisers were held to support the outings, parties and school supplies. Some of these children were adopted if their parents did not survive the TB but some were eventually reunited with their parents.

The Preventorium closed in 1942 but it saved forty-two children, who later in life would have contracted the disease.

Domenica Carriere

Bibliography: Maude Hearne O’Pry. Chronicles of Shreveport (Shreveport, LA: Journal Printing Company, 1978); Shreveport Medical Society Auxiliary Records, Collection 661, Northwest Louisiana Archives, Noel Memorial Library, Shreveport: Louisiana State University.

Citation

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.

"PINES PREVENTORIUM" Handbook of North Louisiana Online (http://www…….), accessed …………. Published by LSU-Shreveport.