Thandiani was originally granted as a leasehold to some members of the famous Battye family in British India. They were Christian missionaries and soldiers who fought in many famous military campiagns of the British Indian Army. They gifted the location to the church authorities, where a Sanatorium and various other facilities were set up, mostly for the convenience of missionaries, Anglican church personnel and officers stationed at the neighbouring cantonment of Abbottabad. It also contained some private European houses, a camping ground, a small bazaar, and the small seasonal church of St Xavier in the Wilderness (under the jurisdiction of St Luke's Church, Abbottabad) which were occupied only during the summers.