Quarantine Islands

Quarantine Hospitals in NYC

Quick Facts

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Fort Wadsworth protected New York City from attack, but how to protect the city from the ever-present threat of disease? The infectious disease ward at the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital that opened in 1911 is perhaps the best-known example of a quarantine in New York today, but for many years it was these two islands that served as New York City’s first line of defense against contagion. Hoffman and Swinburne islands, as they are known today, were created artificially atop a shoal in the harbor in the early 1870s.

Ships coming to New York Harbor were required to stop at a new quarantine station on Staten Island in Rosebank, where the quarantine’s administrative offices were located. Doctors from the quarantine station would inspect the ships, with particular attention given to any that had travelled from South America and Africa. Tropical diseases were more easily spread amongst New Yorkers, who had little exposure and thus little natural immunity to them. Swinburne Island served as a hospital; people who were known to be infected and displaying symptoms would be treated there. Those who had been exposed to contagion but did not show signs of infection were quarantined on Hoffman Island, where they would remain until they either became ill or until enough time had passed that they could be considered healthy. For decades, these islands were the first—and sometimes only—stop for immigrants entering the United States. Today, they are unpopulated and comprise part of the Staten Island Unit of Gateway.

The quarantine was located on these artificial islands because no one wanted a hospital for infectious diseases in their community.

Would an infectious disease hospital near your home make you feel uncomfortable? Is it much different from objections to prisons or drug treatment centers in your neighborhood?