Gaylord's expertise became recognized nationwide, and many well-known individuals - including American playwright Eugene O'Neill - took advantage of its rehabilitative care and services.

The 1950s, with the discovery of medications that successfully curbed the disease's progress, Gaylord turned its expertise to other forms of rehabilitation, beginning with chronic pulmonary disorders, then stroke, brain injury and spinal cord injury. The hospital's programs grew over the years and Gaylord established itself as the premier long-term acute care hospital in the state. Today, Gaylord is well known among health care professionals throughout southern New England and metropolitan New York.

The Spirit of Gaylord

Gaylord Sanatorium, with a plant value of $86,000 and $99.20 in hand, opened its doors to its first six patients on September 20, 1904. The hospital's 500 acres were originally purchased in 1793 by Dr. Moses Gaylord. The land stayed in the family until 1903 when the New Haven County Anti-Tuberculosis Association bought it at a nominal price. This Association, founded in 1902 to combat the rapidly increasing problem of tuberculosis (TB) in Connecticut, was to become the Gaylord Farm Association as it is known today. One of the first Public Health Associations to be organized in the United States, its objective was:

To establish and maintain a sanatorium and hospital in New Haven County, on a non-profit basis, for the care and treatment of cases of pulmonary tuberculosis susceptible to amelioration...and to do generally anything and everything necessary, expedient or incidental to the operation of a sanatorium in all its phases.

Dr. David Russell Lyman (1876-1956) was the first director of Gaylord Farm Sanatorium. After completing his medical training and internship in Baltimore, he went to the Trudeau Sanatorium in Saranac Lake in 1901 to study TB. There, he soon discovered he had TB. Upon his recovery, he decided to crusade against what was then called "the great white plague," the leading cause of death in the early 1900s.

Florence Randolph Burgess was the first director of nursing and assistant superintendent during Gaylord's earliest years. In 1904, while visiting relatives in New Haven, she learned of the new tuberculosis sanatorium. She talked with the board of directors of the New Haven County Anti-Tuberculosis Association and soon presented herself to a surprised Dr. Lyman, announcing that she would be head nurse. Her sudden arrival gave him little choice, but she proved to be as capable and versatile as she was determined.

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Gaylord Milestones

• 1902 Gaylord Sanatorium founded to treat tuberculosis
  
  
• 1904 First 6 patients admitted
  
  
• 1912 American playwright Eugene O'Neill is treated for tuberculosis at Gaylord
  
  
• 1922 Gaylord closed the year with a "comfortable" balance of $13.54. Average length of stay was 51 days; the cost to patients, $23.71 a month
  
  
• 1923 Silvercraft introduced to provide patients with an occupational skill after treatment
  
  
• 1926 Gaylord became the first sanatorium in the country to offer its facilities to the United States Public Health Laboratory National Research Committee
  
  
• 1946 Dr. Selman A. Waksman received the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology for his discovery of streptomycin which, with other new drugs, accelerated the demise of tuberculosis
  
  
• 1948 Gaylord Farm Sanatorium became Gaylord Hospital to address the health care issues of people with chronic illnesses
  
  
• 1954 Gaylord became New England's first hospital specializing in comprehensive rehabilitation
  
  
• 1966 Medicare and Medicaid became part of the health care culture across the country
  
  
• 1986 The first Fitness Festival 5-mile road race for racers with and without disabilities
  
  
• 1987 Installation of Easy Street™, a simulated community environment, for patient therapy
  
  
• 1989 Dedication of The Louis D. Traurig House, a transitional living facility for people with brain injuries
  
  
• 1990 The Americans with Disabilities Act is signed into law
  
  
• 1991 Gaylord assumed operation and management of its first outpatient satellite, the Gaylord/Yale-New Haven Rehabilitation Center at Long Wharf
  
  
• 1991 A professional affiliation is established between Gaylord and Yale University School of Medicine
  
  
• 1993 Dedication of the 60,000 square foot Richard Jackson Pavilion for ambulatory care
  
  
• 1994 Gaylord's first outpatient satellite, Gaylord/New Haven Rehabilitation Center at Long Wharf, moved to larger quarters at One Long Wharf Drive. A second outpatient satellite, Gaylord/Woodbridge, opened at the Jewish Community Center in Woodbridge
  
  
• 1996 Gaylord joins the National Handicapped Sports Association
  
  
• 1997 Acquisition of the New Haven Sleep Disorders Center and its move to Gaylord/New Haven
  
  
• 1998 Opening of the third satellite specializing in sleep services site in Fairfield
  
  
• 1999 Gaylord opens sleep services in West Hartford.
  
  
• 2004 Gaylord opens another site devoted to outpatient services and sleep services in Guilford.
  
  
• 2006 Gaylord partners with Healthtrax Fitness and Wellness to open the Gaylord Wellness Center that houses a state-of-the-art fitness center, Gaylord Outpatient Center and Gaylord Sleep Medicine. Gaylord Sleep Medicine moves its Fairfield lab to a new 6-bed lab at the Trumbull Marriott Hotel.
  
• 2007 Gaylord breaks ground in June for new 36-bed patient pavilion. In September, Gaylord Sleep Medicine moves its West Hartford sleep center to new quarters in Glastonbury.