Hassler Health Farm

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, tuberculosis became a widespread public concern, as the disease, which infects the lungs, was common among the poor. After tuberculosis was determined to be contagious, infected patients were either encouraged or forced to enter sanatoria. According to early medical exports, rest in a dry, temperate climate, surrounded by lush scenery and little stress, was thought to treat tuberculosis, along with rheumatism, asthma, and other diseases.[2] San Francisco, as a major urban center, developed a need for a location to sequester tuberculosis patients away from others. A rural site in San Mateo County, far from development and surrounded by these suggested amenities, was selected for the sanitarium. The facility opened in 1927.[3]

As the San Francisco Department of Public Health first administered the site, it was originally named the San Francisco Health Farm, although by 1931, it was known as the Hassler Health Farm. The site's namesake was Dr. Hassler, the Director of San Francisco's Board of Health in the 1910s and 1920s.[4] Over the years, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the site's capacity increased from 44 beds in 1927 to 100 beds by 1939.[5]

As part of a Works Progress Administration project funded at $100,000,[6] additional buildings were added to the campus in the early 1940s, further increasing the capacity to 260 beds.[7] John Bakewell Jr., whose other projects ranged from San Francisco City Hall to Stanford's Hoover Tower, designed the site, working alongside contractors Albert E. Mangs and Associates Pacific Construction, M. E. Vukicvich, Martinelli Construction, and R. A. McLean. Workers constructed a new kitchen and dining buildings, two ward buildings, a children's building, residences for doctors and nurses, an improved sewage system, a new water tank, and an incinerator.[1] In an attempt to support the recovery of patients, the grounds were kept pristine, with Spanish tiled roofs and big decks off the wards with lounge chairs. Friends and family members could visit patients in other rooms. Records of patients, as well as death certificates, are stored at the County Recorder's Office in Redwood City.[8]

Advances in medicine in the late 1950s, including the widespread availability of antibiotics that could treat and cure tuberculosis patients, reduced the need for separate treatment facilities. In 1964, the sanatorium was closed and converted into a chronic care hospital for the poor, still under the name Hassler Health Farm or Hassler Health Home. Most patients were elderly. In 1972, the facility was closed permanently, and the buildings sat vacant until the grounds were sold to the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District in 1983.[9]

In between the hospital's closure in 1972 and its demolition in 1985, the buildings sat idle. Limited fencing was erected around the site, but the grounds were frequently visited by local high school students who went to party. It was during this time that the site developed a local reputation for being a former ward for the mentally insane,[10] although this was never the case.[11] Local residents recall near-accidents resulting from walking on the caving-in roofs of the hospital's wards and sneaking around the grounds after large storms. In the early 1980s, a local student called into a radio program on a Friday and announced a big party was to be held at the site that night. Kids showed up, as did many police officers, who had been tipped off by the radio announcement.[12]

Among local visitors to the abandoned grounds, Jon Dunkle, locally referred to as "The Peninsula Serial Killer," evidently frequented the site.[13] Dunkle was ultimately found guilty of the murder of four teenage boys, the first of which was 15-year-old John Davies on November 8, 1981. Based on official testimony from Davies' family members, the site of the first murder was likely at the Hassler Health Farm grounds, where Dunkle had lured Davies, a family friend who would often visit the site together with Dunkle.[14]

There were various attempts to redevelop the property. In May 1975, then-San Francisco mayor Joseph Alioto suggested that the property be used as a halfway house for up to 500 Vietnamese residents following the end of the Vietnam War.[15] Members of the Redwood City Woman's Club advocated for the use of Hassler Health Farm as a rehabilitation center for female alcoholics, or male alcoholics and derelicts.[16] In November 1973, Proposition "I" was placed on the ballot for San Carlos voters, a bond that would have raised $1 million for the purchase of the property to keep it as open space. Although the site was seen as lucrative, especially since the development of the San Carlos hills, the proposition was rejected by voters.[17]