Essay by John Lazzaro
2026
121 pages, 11”x10”

Sanatorium is the first book to document the contemporary vestiges of former tuberculosis hospitals in the United States. Commemorating the visionary architecture that played a vital role in combating America’s first modern public health crisis, this thought-provoking photographic survey includes the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium in Saranac Lake, New York, America’s first sanatorium; Seaside Sanatorium in Waterford, Connecticut, the first children’s heliotropic treatment hospital; Molly Stark Sanatorium, Ohio’s stunning Spanish Revival-styled tuberculosis hospital; and Sea View Hospital in Staten Island, the site of the pioneering antibiotic research for the cure for tuberculosis, among other sites around the country.

Over the course of five years, photographer and author John Lazzaro visited over 25 former sanatoriums around the United States in the hopes of documenting the remnants of America’s tuberculosis movement. The photographs in this book serve as their final, official record.