Philadelphia Lazaretto

Infobox_nrhp | name =The Lazaretto
nrhp_type =

---

caption = Lazaretto in 1936
location= Wanamaker Ave. and 2nd St.,
Essington, Pennsylvania
lat_degrees = 39
lat_minutes = 51
lat_seconds = 38
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 75
long_minutes = 18
long_seconds = 2
long_direction = W
locmapin = Pennsylvania
area = 10 acres
built =1799
architect= Unknown
architecture= Georgian, Federal
added = March 16, 1972
governing_body = Private
refnum=72001119cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2007-01-23|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service] The Philadelphia Lazaretto was the first quarantine hospital in the United States, built in 1799, in Tinicum Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.cite web |url= http://www.phila.gov/Health/Commissioner/History/ContagiousDiseaseControl.html
title=Contagious Disease Control, The Lazaretto | accessdate= 2007-11-21 |last= |first= |coauthors= |date= |work= |publisher=City of Philadelphia] The site was originally inhabited by the Lenni Lenape, and then the first Swedish settlers in America. The facility predates similar national landmarks such as Ellis Island and Angel Island and is considered both the oldest surviving quarantine hospital and the last surviving example of its type in the United States.cite web |url= http://www.ushistory.org/laz/history/index.htm |title=Lazaretto Quarantine Station, Tinicum Township, Delaware County, PA: History |accessdate= 2008-04-24 |last= |first= |coauthors= |date= |work= |publisher= ushistory.org]

History

The first quarantine station for the city of Philadelphia was erected in 1743 where the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers meet,cite web |url= http://www.ushistory.org/laz/history/timeline.htm |title= Lazaretto: Time Line |accessdate= 2008-04-26 |last= |first= |coauthors= |date= |work= |publisher= ushistory.org] but efforts to control disease epidemics in the City of Philadelphia did not begin in earnest until after the devastating Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793, which killed between 4,000 and 5,000 inhabitants -- about one-tenth of the city's population at the time -- and led the national government, which was then located in Philadelphia, to temporarily move out of the city. Following that epidemic, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1798 created a Board of Health, controlled by the city, with the power to levy taxes for public health measures. The following year, the city Board of Health erected the Lazaretto on a ten-acre site ten miles (16 km) south of the city on the banks of the Delaware River in Tinicum Township. The new quarantine station included a hospital, offices and residences. All passenger and cargo vessels entering the port of Philadelphia were required to dock at the Lazaretto for inspection. Passengers suspected of contagion were quarantined in the hospital, and all suspect cargo was stored in the public warehouse. The Board of Health of the City of Philadelphia operated the facility and enforced the local quarantine regulations until the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania assumed authority for enforcing quarantine regulations in 1893.After it was closed as a hospital, it was used as an aviation base.cite news | first= Todd | last= Mason |url= http://www.philly.com | title= A preservation battle over immigrant site | publisher=Philadelphia Inquirer | date= 2006-06-21]

The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. [cite web |url= http://www.preservationalliance.com/news_quarantine.php |title= The Lazaretto |accessdate= 2008-03-07 |last= |first= |coauthors= |date= 2008-03-07 |work= |publisher=Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia] In the early 21st century, the site was threatened with development, but due to the work of local preservationists has been saved from leveling. [cite web |url= http://www.ushistory.org/laz/news/dt110906.htm
title=Lazaretto property has been preserved | accessdate= 2007-11-21 |last= DiGiacomo |first= Marlene |coauthors= |date= November 9, 2006 |work= |publisher=Delaware County Daily Times]

Further reading

*cite book | last = McCarthy | first = Michael P. | authorlink = | title = Typhoid and the Politics of Public Health in Nineteenth-century | publisher = DIANE Publishing | series = | year = 1987 | doi = | isbn = 354063293X
*cite journal |last= Morman |first=ET |authorlink= |coauthors= |year= |month= |title= Guarding against alien impurities: the Philadelphia Lazaretto, 1854-1893 |journal= Pa Mag Hist Biogr|volume= 1984|issue= 108(2)|pages= 131-52|id= 11617876 |url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11617876 |accessdate= 2008-04-21 |quote=

ee also

*Bedloe's Island
*Fort Mifflin
*lazaretto

External links

*cite web |url= http://www.ushistory.org/laz/index.htm |title= Lazaretto Quarantine Station |accessdate= 2008-04-22 |last= |first= |coauthors= |date= 2008-04-22 |work= |publisher=ushistory.org
*cite web |url= http://www.ushistory.org/laz/news/cg0306.htm
title=In the Name of Lazarus |accessdate= 2007-11-21 |last= |first= |coauthors= |date= Spring 2006 |work= |publisher=ushistory.org
*cite web |url= http://www.aia.org/nwsltr_hrc.cfm?pagename=hrc_a_20060720_lazaretto |title= The Lazaretto: An 18th-Century Landmark at Risk |accessdate= 2008-03-07 |last= Linderman |first= Richard |coauthors= |date= 2008-03-07 |work= |publisher=American Institute of Architects
* [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.pa0415 Listing and photographs] at the Historic American Buildings Survey
* [http://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/pj_display.cfm/115927 Listing] at Philadelphia Architects and Buildings

References