Tranquille Hospital Complex (Closed)

Tranquille or Tranquille-on-the-Lake is located on Kamloops Lake and includes many vacated hospital and support buildings. Imagine a city unto itself and totally self-sufficient, and that describes Tranquille. However, it’s been closed since 1984 and some of the buildings are dilapidated and falling down. It is a Director’s playground; a complex open to explosions, stunts and action-- A-Team was filmed here.

A condensed ftp site dedicated to Tranquille Property for filmmaking in the Thompson-Nicola region can be found at http://www.tnrd.bcfilmcommission.com/tranquille1. The BC Film Commission also has an abbreviated version of the Thompson-Nicola locations library for your perusal.

Vacant Buildings on the Tranquille property include:

  • Old Main Hospital
  • Sage Hospital
  • Greaves Hospital
  • High Park Nurses Dormitory
  • East Pavilion Nurses Dormitory
  • Meadowview Men’s Dormitory
  • Cafeteria & kitchen building
  • Laundry building (empty)
  • Fire Hall
  • Gymnasium (ext. only)
  • Carpentry & paint building
  • Elementary school with playground
  • Caretakers’ building
  • Crop fields
  • Small cemetery
  • Blue Pavilion office building
  • Administration building (ext. only)
  • Gardens with pond & small bridge
  
  • Residential Area:
    • Several small houses
    • Doctor’s house – large
    • Four-plexes
    • Three-plexes
  • Ranch & Farm Buildings:
    • Slaughter House
    • Beef Prodgency area
    • Horse stable
    • Dairy cow barn
    • Pig pens
    • Blacksmith shop
    • Farm equipment sheds & garages
    • Underground root cellar
  • Transportation Structures:
    • Underground tunnels
    • Paved roads throughout property
    • Bridge across Tranquille Creek

History

“Tranquille”, also referred to as Padova City, was the “King Edward VII Tuberculosis Sanatorium”. The area itself was named “Tranquille” after the Indian Chief “Sanquil”. Tuberculosis or consumption or the white plague, was an epidemic at turn-of-the-century. The land just outside Kamloops city limits, where the North and South Thompson meet and flow into Kamloops Lake, was purchased in 1905 and the tuberculosis hospital began taking patients by 1907. The site is approximately 191 acres and by the 1950s had at least 40 buildings. Tranquille was operated as a tuberculosis sanatorium from its inception until 1958 when it was closed. The facility reopened in 1959 as a home for the mentally challenged, and was shut down permanently in 1984; a victim of government budget cuts. Tranquille has changed hands several times since then. In 1991, A&A Estates bought Tranquille, intending to turn the property into an Italian "homeland" called Padova City. But the project fell through a couple of years later. It has been envisioned as an exclusive resort and a small, completely self-sufficient, sustainable city.

Future

It is owned by BC Wilderness Tours, and they are experienced and supportive in facilitating film and television productions on their property. Past projects include the mini-series “Alice”, the MTV series “Fear”, TV series “The Mole”, and feature films such as “Firewall” starring Harrison Ford, “Afghan Knights” starring Michael Madsen and “A Team” starring Liam Neeson and Bradley Cooper. Plans for the property’s future can be seen at http://www.tranquille.ca/

Resources