The Highland Sanitorium was built in 1896 by Dr. W.C.
Banta and
Dr. C.J. Keegan in the 400 block of North Main Street. The Highland was
a large and potentially grand institution but was plagued from its genesis
by instability and bad luck. A regular change of owners and managers
during its first two decades, as well as lawsuits and natural disasters, kept
the Highland from taking its place among Martinsville s most top-drawer
resorts.
The spa was a large frame structure containing 74 rooms, featuring electric lights, steam heat, an elevator, speaking tubes, and electric bells. There was a glass-enclosed porch on the north side of the building, a 200-feet long porch along the eastern side, billiard rooms, and elegant varnished woodwork.
By the 1920s the business had had at least 16 different owners, not to mention managers and physicians, before being purchased by Dr. Simon P. Scherer from Indianapolis. Despite the frequent changes in management and ownership, the Highland did a respectable amount of business, which was improved upon by Scherer. By 1923 his first round of grand additions and improvements to the Highland were completed, and the spa was renamed the New Highland.
The New Highland Sanitorium offered special diets, Swedish massage, medical treatments, diagnostic laboratories, a radiology department, physical therapy unit, and a gymnasium, as well as the mineral baths. The spa was soon running full and turning away guests. The colors used in the interior design of the lobby were straw and ivory, with gray and brown floors, natural finished woodwork, gray and black draperies, and tan furniture. The lobby also featured a grand old fireplace, with an old-fashioned crane and iron pot, which was added by Dr. Scherer from his own family s heirlooms. He added landscaping to the west and an indoor swimming pool with a glass skylight. The new medical clinic was extensive, with separate rooms for physical examinations, laboratory work, physical therapy, and X-rays.
More additions were scheduled to be completed at
the beginning of
1928, but the new construction and remodeling were not finally completed
until 1929. A five-story absolutely fireproof Spanish-style brick
addition was completed in February 1929, making it the first five-story
building in Morgan County. The Santa Rosa Company of Indianapolis
was hired to add the Spanish interior decorations, including terrazzo
floors, and exterior, which was made of glazed pressed brick, trimmed
with cut stone, a Mexican adobe lobby, with multicolored glass, plate glass
windows, Spanish-style light fixtures, and large arches in the corridors.
The lobby was decorated with Spanish furniture, columns, and velvet
draperies. The New Highland's grand opening took play on Saturday,
February 16, 1929. The menu for the grand opening banquet was
published in the The Martinsville Democrat on February 22, 1929:
bouillon
celery
olives
pickles
mint salad
peas in potato nests
cauliflower
cranberry sauce
apples a la ermine
brick ice cream
silver cake decorated with flowers
cafe noir
After such an enthusiastic grand opening, a devastating blow to Scherer occurred less than a month later. The old frame part of the Highland, dating back to 1892, which Scherer planned to eventually tear down, was destroyed in a fire on March 11, 1929. Workers, including the Naugle Brothers, arrived at the New Highland on Tuesday, the day following the fire, to begin the clean up process and reconstruction. New Highland was in good enough shape by the beginning of June 1929 to advertise during the Grand Army of the Republic convention in Martinsville.
Dr. Harold Scherer eventually took over most of the operations of the New Highland. Despite the hard work of the Scherers, misfortune continued to dog the spa. On the afternoon of February 7, 1951 a fire of undetermined cause destroyed the south wing, then unused. He never did so, and eventually offered the building for sale. While it was on the market, New Highland remained empty and untended, attracting vandals.
U.S. Congressman and community patrician William G. Bray and his family bought the edifice in the early 1960s, hoping to turn it into a nursing home, but they were unable to implement their plans. A suitable buyer could not be found until 1970, when the Brays sold the New Highland building and grounds to the Greater Life Corporation of Indianapolis and its subsidiary, the Christian Attention Retired and Elderly, Inc. The building was originally intended to be a state-of-the-art retirement home where students could to study geriatrics. Instead the Morgan House became a subsidized federal housing project following extensive renovation, which was sponsored by the government. In November 1971 Morgan House apartments opened for occupancy.
The Morgan House apartment building remains in use at the time of writing, only one of two remaining sanitarium buildings in Martinsville. Its appearance is still endearing, although the structure is costly to maintain.