Head Nurse Dora Henderstedt and her charges, June 1951.

In the early 1900s, tuberculosis killed about 110,000 Americans annually.  Without modern antibiotics, the disease was often fatal.  To protect children judged at risk from TB because of exposure or poor health, communities sometimes segregated the juveniles in “preventoriums.”  Rest Haven,  opened in 1920 in east San Diego, was one of the first and last preventoriums for children in the United States.   Read more about The Rest Haven Preventorium.