Healing Tradition

A picturesque pond in Green Springs, Ohio, is the focus of an ancient healing tradition.  For centuries, residents and visitors have sought the alleged curative powers of its water.

The pond is the product of the world's largest naturally occurring sulphur spring.  Every day, eight million gallons of 50-degree sulphur water gush through a fissure in the bedrock creating and sustaining the pond.

In the 1700's the local Indian tribes honored the spring as a place of neutrality for their aged, sick, and injured members.

In the 1800's the area became a booming village of health resorts named "Green Springs" after the sulphur spring and its green-tinged pond.  These resorts catered to city people who vacationed in the country to "take in the waters".

One resort, the Oak Ridge Hotel, began bottling and selling the water extolling its health enhancing virtues.

In 1953, the St. Louis based Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help purchased the hotel, which had become the Oak Ridge Sanatorium for tuberculosis patients.

The Sisters extended their healing mission to encompass a home the the elderly by opening the Villa Maria Nursing Home.

In the sanatorium, physical therapy and "arts and crafts" were introduced to rehabilitate the convalescing tuberculosis  patients.  As the use of antibiotics decreased the spread of TB, the sanatorium gradually transformed into the first physical rehabilitation hospital in Northwest Ohio.  In 1970 the hospital and the nursing home were joined under one roof, replacing the old sanatorium building.

In 1983 the hospital was designated a long term acute care hospital, the first in Ohio.

Although the spring's sulphur water has not been promoted for medicinal benefits for more than 80 years, St. Francis Health Care Centre continues the ancient healing tradition of caring for the elderly, the sick and the injured.