Matrons of Cottage Grove. Photo by Johnny Harmon. Image Courtesy of the National Hansen's Disease Museum, Permanent Collections, Carville, LA.

For those patients lucky enough to live in the "suburbia" of Cottage Grove, or White City, they could maintain a semblance of normalcy not available in dormitory-style living.

The cafeteria allowed the suburbanites to draw dry rations from the storehouse and do their own cooking.