5-7 Page Research Paper- Epidemics and the control of disease around the 1800s

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22 November 2015 ProQuest

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1. Essington quarantine station helped save lives for 80 years The hospital opened in 1800 after a series of devastating yellow fever epidemics................................................................................................................. 1

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Document 1 of 1 Essington quarantine station helped save lives for 80 years The hospital opened in 1800 after a series of devastating yellow fever epidemics. Author: Kennedy, Joseph S ProQuest document link Links: Check for full text in other resources Full text: The only way to deal with contagious diseases was to isolate victims. In 1799 the city government bought 10 acres in Essington on the Delaware to establish a quarantine station. The station was called Lazaretto, a name derived from St. Lazarus, the patron saint of those with infectious diseases. It was given to isolated quarantine hospitals, according to a historic sketch, The Lazaretto, written by Arden Skidmore for the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce. Funding came from a board of health created that the Pennsylvania legislature established. The board was controlled by the city and had the power to levy taxes. Essington, about 15 miles from Philadelphia and seven miles from Chester, was at the time "a place of swamps, tidal mudflats, and many wandering streams," populated by a few farmers who had dammed the water to allow some acreage for planting, according to Skidmore. Construction of the quarantine complex started almost immediately, and by 1800 a steward's quarters, a doctor's house, a wharf, and various small buildings had been completed. The steward's quarters was the most striking, a three-story brick building of Georgian design based on Pennsylvania Hospital in the city. The structure - which is still standing - is decorated with a white cupola and a porch running the width of the house. It has 28 rooms. Each of the two wings initially served as a hospital. A separate hospital building was later built in the back. The law that allowed the staff at Lazaretto to stop and detain people suspected of having dangerous diseases was not popular with sea captains or the local population. In 1804, John Ferguson, captain of the schooner Monongahela Farmer, refused to have his crew and passengers quarantined at Lazaretto. He sailed into the port of Philadelphia and released his passengers. Ferguson was never prosecuted because of "lack of public sympathy for the law," according to local historian Henry G. Ashmead in The History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania (1884). Yet by 1824 public opinion changed when a member of a Delaware Bay oyster boat that had docked in Chester was found to have smallpox. The man was transferred to Lazaretto, where he promptly died. The disease had been contained. An outbreak of yellow fever was detected in 1870 aboard the brig Home, sailing out of Jamaica bound for Philadelphia. The ship was fumigated, and the cargo of logs was loaded onto canal boats and sent into the city. Rubbish from the ship as well as clothing and personal effects were burned. A total of 10 died: seven from the ship, the doctor at Lazaretto and the quarantine master and nurse, Ashmead wrote. But once again a disease had been contained by the quarantine station. The proximity of the quarantine station to other communities prompted Delaware County to petition the commonwealth to move Lazaretto from Essington to Little Tinicum Island in the Delaware River. The petition failed. But in 1880 the federal government took over quarantine stations and moved the Essington operation to Marcus Hook, according to Skidmore. Around the turn of the century, the Lazaretto site became a resort run by the Philadelphia Athletic Club. In 1913, it became a seaplane base and played a role in the First World War as a training center. In 1936, after a period of disuse and decline, the complex was sold to Frank Mills, an early civilian flyer, who

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established the Philadelphia Seaplane Base. The hospital building was torn down and the doctor's house was sold to the Riverside Yacht Club. Bob Mills, son of Frank, sold the property in 2000 to Island Marina Partners of Drexel Hill for a development. The steward's quarters, the largest link with Lazaretto's past, is now under the shadow of the wrecker's ball. Contact Joseph Kennedy at 610-313-8212 or [email protected]. Credit: Joseph S. Kennedy INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF Illustration Caption: PHOTO SCOTT S. HAMRICK / Inquirer Suburban Staff The Lazaretto quarantine station in Essington, Delaware County, in a painting from the 19th century. The only way to deal with contagious diseases 200 years ago was to isolate victims. Publication title: Philadelphia Inquirer First page: L.3 Publication year: 2002 Publication date: Oct 6, 2002 Year: 2002 Section: NEIGHBORS MONTGOMERY Publisher: Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. Place of publication: Philadelphia, Pa. Country of publication: United States Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States ISSN: 08856613 Source type: Newspapers Language of publication: English Document type: NEWSPAPER ProQuest document ID: 287323046 Document URL: http://search.proquest.com/docview/287323046?accountid=8289 Copyright: Copyright Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. 2002 Last updated: 2012-09-23 Database: ProQuest Central

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