The Roosevelt Island Smallpox Hospital
Wikimedia CommonsRoosevelt Island’s Smallpox Hospital was designed by James Renwick Jr.
Built in 1856 on New York’s Roosevelt Island, Smallpox Hospital was the first hospital in America to accept patients with smallpox. Though smallpox vaccines had already become widespread by then, New York City was still ravaged by the disease, making the hospital’s construction a necessity.
The Gothic Revival structure was designed by James Renwick Jr., a renowned architect who also designed St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
When the hospital first opened, Roosevelt Island was still known as Blackwell’s Island, and it had a reputation for housing not only the sick but also criminals, as various other medical centers and prisons were built there.
To its credit, Smallpox Hospital was perfectly situated as a quarantine hospital for people suffering from an infectious disease, as the facility’s limited access kept sick patients from infecting healthy New Yorkers. And it did accomplish some good, as between 1856 and 1875, the now-abandoned hospital treated an estimated 7,000 people a year.
But not all patients had the same level of comfort during their stay — as paying patients were given private rooms on the upper floors and "charity case" patients were gathered in wards on the lower floors, sometimes numbering 100 at a time. Recent immigrants to the city were frequently admitted, as they were especially vulnerable to infection during their move.
Blackwell's Island as a whole became infamous in 1887, when investigative journalist Nellie Bly published a shocking exposé of the Women's Lunatic Asylum on the island. According to Bly, who went undercover as a patient there, countless women were victims of neglect and physical abuse at the asylum. One woman even died during Bly's stay.
Though things didn't change overnight, the exposé did put pressure on officials to consider more humane treatment for patients, both those suffering from mental illness and those impacted by physical illness.
As for the former Smallpox Hospital, it eventually shut down as the epidemics waned in the city in the late 1800s. Surprisingly, the abandoned hospital still stands today as a site protected by New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission. Its ruins are a stark reminder of the island's past.
