Walter's Park Sanitarium

Walter's Park Sanitarium

Walter’s Park Sanitarium advertisement was a promotion for a health resort in the mountains of Pennsylvania that provided a natural healing solution to illnesses. This ad targeted people living with diseases in the city since it said in bold: “Country Life with City Comforts”. Walter’s Park Sanitarium was created by Robert Walter, a doctor who himself suffered with a heart disease for 60 years of his life. Struggling to find a comfortable solution to his illness, Dr. Walter created his own treatment that included fresh water, pure air, salt rubs, sulphor baths, massages, electricity applications, exercise, and other natural remedies. In the late 1800s, there was minimal knowledge about medicine, and Sanitariums were one experiment that sounded appealing to people experiencing discomfort. Dr. Walter also prided himself on having the newest technological innovations in his facilities such as elevators, steam heat, electric light and bells, long distance telephones and a post office (Maccallum).
This item was interesting to me because it revealed how progressive cities like New York were in the 1890s, but also how people were attracted to this old and new combination of country life and city comforts. Dr. Walter’s use of city comforts implied that city dwellers had grown accustomed to the advanced amenities that came with living in the center of commerce and innovation. They looked for the newest complexities, however, they didn’t want to venture too far from tradition. The 1890s were part of the progressive era, a time of growth and wealth and it was a challenge for businesses to change exactly as much as people wanted them to. Dr. Walter successfully merged the old and new in his ad by promoting the Sanitarium through appeal to the nostalgia of the country life with the addition of the newest technologies in his facilities. This technique exactly depicted what Martin from Martin Dressler did as an American Entrepreneur in the 1890s. Martin knew how to combine the perfect amount of tradition and newness in his unique business creations. Contrasting the Walter Park Sanitarium, Martin brought natural elements inside his city hotels, but Martin and Dr. Walter both captured the appeal of the original natural environment combined with man made comforts.

Robert Walter

Maccallum, Malcolm J. "South Mountain Resorts - Berks History Center." Berks History Center.
Web. 23 Oct. 2015. <http://www.berkshistory.org/multimedia/articles/south-mountain-resorts/>.

Walter’s Park Sanatorium. Advertisement. McClures Magazine for July. July 1898: 59 of Ads. Print.

McClures Magazine

November 2, 2015

Theresa Patti

1898