Beginning of The Ahwahnee Sanatorium

Three hundred and twenty acres of land on which the Ahwahnee Sanatorium now stands was first taken up by William Crooks. Then it was sold to ta man named Grant.

Later it was sold again to William Sell who built the Ahwahnee Tavern here. For many years it was a stopping place for the stages that went to Yosemite Valley.

In 1920 William Sell sold the place for $20,000 to Madera, Merced and Stanislaus Counties for a sanatorium.  Mr. Fletcher sold one hundred and sixty acres that bordered the sanatorium on the north for $4,600.  This purchase increased the Sanatorium land to 480 acres.

When the sanatorium was established there were 16 patients, Lola A. Cease as superintendent and Dr. Lee Seward* as the doctor. Most of the patients at this time had been taken from the three county hospitals and put into the sanatorium, many of whom were too far gone to recover. Now the institution has 127 patients in all.

*Lee S. Seward born 5 Oct 1889 in Putnam, CT, a widower.

(Madera Heritage Quarterly, Vol. 14, Issue 4, January 1997. An extract from various histories written by Madera County grammar schools in 1938.)