In 1901, at the initiative of Moscow doctor M. S. Zernov, the construction of the first health resort of the Essentuki Auxiliary Society began in Essentuki. It was a sanatorium for the underprivileged, created according to the design of the famous architect E. B. Khodjaev. The official opening took place on June 1, 1910, and the sanatorium could accommodate 70 people.

Treatment in Essentuki was conducted using ozonated air and sprayed salts from sources No. 4 and 17. M. S. Zernov was one of the first Russian doctors to apply the methodology of Professor Scharko. He lived in house No. 3 on Kislovodskaya Street in Essentuki, where his created institutes were also located: electric-light, diagnostic, thermal, and therapeutic, equipped with the advanced diagnostic technology of that time.

During the revolution, the sanatorium was renamed the "Kazbek" boarding house. In 1937, the trade unions built the first Soviet health resort in Essentuki, the Dzerzhinsky Sanatorium. During the occupation, the boarding house served as a hospital and was heavily damaged as a result of shelling and bombings. Its restoration lasted from 1948 to 1950. In 1956, the "Kazbek" boarding house and the Dzerzhinsky sanatorium were merged, naming the new complex the "Shakhter" sanatorium. It also included the dacha of General Makarov, built in 1912, which is a monument of architecture and history of regional significance.