City of Hope

City of Hope. History. , The Jewish Consumptive Relief Association of California (JCRA) purchased an abandoned roadhouse and 10 acres of land at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains to treat patients suffering from tuberculosis - a highly infectious disease that causes fever, a persistent cough, and, before the discovery of antibiotics, often death. The treatment of choice was the "climate cure" - fresh air, sunlight, and rest. Many of those stricken by the disease fled the East Coast cities, with their unsanitary sweatshops, for the wide-open west and a chance at recovery. , , History , 1912: The JCRA begins raising funds to open a tuberculosis sanatorium in Duarte. , 1913: Fundraising efforts clear the $5,000 mortgage on 10 acres of land. , 1914: The Los Angeles Sanatorium opens, offering free aid to tuberculosis sufferers. The first patients are housed in canvas cottages. , 1921: The Junk Peddlers Protective Association of Los Angeles pays for the first major landscaping efforts. Hollywood luminaries such as Al Jolson and the Warner family donate funds for gardens. , , photo captions: , Top: Modest tent houses of the early sanatorium were soon replaced with clapboard cottages. , Bottom: The original 10 acres of Duarte land, c. 1914. Early makeshift tents sit to the left of a roadhouse that existed on the land.