The waiting rooms were on the first floor in the northeast corner of the building and the doctor's offices were adjacent to the waiting rooms. Dr. Blythe's office was on the front of the building west of the waiting room and Dr. Grissom's office was south of the waiting room.
A long hall from the waiting room to the south end of the building led to the treatment and operating room, and a pharmacy where Dr. Blythe mixed his own prescriptions for patients. A library was also available to anyone who wanted to come and do research or read there, but the materials could not be taken from the building.
A rather narrow stairway was next to the south wall, and a large elevator was located in the sanitarium's back (southwest) corner. The elevator was hand-operated using strong ropes and a pulley. It was used to transport patients, or anything else that wouldn't make the stairs, to the 18 second floor patient rooms. A very similar stairway and elevator was located in the Rogers Hardware Building across the street, now on the northwest corner of South Madison and West First Streets.
Wood stoves heated the sanitarium. Mt. Pleasant had electricity, so the sanitarium had electric lights, but there was no running water in town. It was said a water well was on the lot before the building was built. Once the building was complete, the well was half under the building and half outdoors. The outside portion formed a semi-circle, and downtown business people drew their daily drinking water from it.
Publicity Promoter M. A. Weslow gave a glowing description of the sanitarium in the Saturday, January 30, 1909 issue of Mt. Pleasant's The Weekly Journal. He was especially descriptive of the building's ventilation saying "it was almost perfect, with large windows, doors and a wide hall dividing the tier of patient rooms, giving ventilation at all times and same is so constructed that the amount of ventilation can be modified as may be practical to the disease of patients condition...scientifically figured and controlled by the finest of thermometers and barometers." He also commented that the sanitarium's water was "sterilized and analyzed" so the treatments would restore the sick if science could do so.
Drs. Blythe and Grissom offered shock therapy in their sanitarium using what they called a "static machine." They used the machine to treat paralysis, which sometimes helped and sometimes didn't according to early accounts.
According to R. L. Jurney, Dr. Blythe was the first Mt. Pleasant resident to own an automobile. He bought a Columbus Motor Buggy, which was what is commonly referred to as a "horseless carriage" in 1906. The Columbus Motor Buggy was made similar to a wagon with high wheels and solid rubber tires. It had a gasoline engine and was guided with a tiller (hand lever).
Dr. Blythe operated the sanitarium until some time before 1916, when he sold that building to A. P. (Bud) Williams for $4,500, who converted it into a hotel that was the fore-runner of Hotel Stephens. After he sold the sanitarium to Mr. Williams, Dr. Blythe retired and Dr. Grissom moved his office over the Ellis-Kelly Drug Store on the corner of West Third and North Jefferson.
Dr. John W. Edwards, born July 18, 1866, died on February 17, 1899 and is buried in the Edwards Cemetery. Dr. Blythe died in 1920. Dr. Grissom, born November 28, 1871 in Titus County, died September 27, 1947.
Many years later, Dr. Thomas Wilson Renfroe began his practice on the same property once owned by Dr. Blyte. Dr. Renfroe was Dr. Grissom's grandson and Dr. Blythe's great-grandson. Dr. Renfroe was also a great-great-great-grandcousin to Dr. John W. Edwards.
