GLENDALE ADVENTIST TO MARK 100TH ANNIVERSARY WRAPPED IN TUBES, IT'LL LOOK LIKE A GIFT.

Byline: Alex Dobuzinskis Staff Writer

GLENDALE - The Glendale Sanitarium opened a century ago, offering fresh air, exercise, nutritious food and medical treatment in a former 75-room Victorian hotel developed by city founder Leslie C. Brand.

Over the years, the sanitarium was transformed into a full-fledged hospital that expanded to meet the needs of Glendale as it grew from a rural community to an urban hub.

The facility now known as Glendale Adventist Medical Center is licensed for 450 beds and has more than 2,000 employees, including 700 physicians. The hospital is building a $100 million tower expected to open in fall 2006 with the addition of 60 beds and an expansion of its emergency department.

``What we've contributed to the community is very stable, consistently good health care for 100 years,'' said CEO and President Scott Reiner.

The original sanitarium was run by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a Protestant denomination that observes the Sabbath on Saturday. The church purchased the property from Brand, known as the ``Father of Glendale,'' who helped expedite the sale.

Once it opened, the sanitarium used some treatments developed in a Michigan sanitarium by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, a Seventh-day Adventist known for the cereal brand that bears his name.

``This was the Jurassic period of medicine, before lab and X-rays and current protocols were available,'' said Dr. Steven Kamajian, chief of staff-elect at the hospital.

The treatment offered at the sanitarium in 1905 resembled the services offered at a modern-day spa, Kamajian said. There were tennis courts, weight rooms and a swimming pool; patients got massages and learned about diet. They also got check-ups and surgery.

``People had to be cut open to find out what was wrong with them,'' Kamajian said. ``They've gone from that era to the era where now people are capable of having all of their diagnoses made without a pinprick.''

The sanitarium eventually outgrew the former hotel building and, in 1924, it opened in a new $1.24 million facility. A wing was added in 1955, and today that wing is the oldest part of the facility remaining after several additions to the hospital.

The hospital was originally part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, but a separate corporation was created decades ago to run the Adventist hospital network. The hospital changed names several times over the years, acquiring its current name in 1973.

A three-day operation to wrap the hospital in tubing is meant to make the facility look like a gift.

``(We're) giving it back to the community for another 100 years,'' Kamajian said.

Alex Dobuzinskis, [phone]

alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com

IF YOU GO

A 100th birthday party will be held at 11 a.m. Sept. 25 at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, 1509 Wilson Terrace. And beginning Tuesday, the facility will be wrapped with colorful tubing to resemble a gift.

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The original Glendale Adventist Medical Center opened a century ago as the Glendale Sanitarium, a former Victorian hotel developed by Leslie C. Brand as a kind of health spa.

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IF YOU GO (see text)