The Smallpox Hospital of New York, known by some as Renwick Ruins, was once a center for smallpox treatment and containment located on the now Roosevelt Island. The hospital began operation in 1856 as the first of its kind in the nation to exclusively dedicate itself to smallpox cases. It saw 20 years of continuous work centered on the disease until the epidemic had been considered under control by the city. Once a landmark institution, the state of the building in place today does not evoke a sense of pride or importance. In fact, the Smallpox Hospital is an archaic sight that stands out starkly against the NYC landscape. The smallpox hospital was once a crowning achievement for the city by becoming a “first” but reveals much-overlooked horrors when examining the conditions faced by poor and immigrant smallpox patients.
The hospital is just a short F train ride away, but what stands there today is a building that is hard to imagine as NYC history. Roosevelt Island is wedged just between Queens and the Upper East Side, now largely a residential area, but just a few minutes south is the decaying gothic ruin. The stone building has collapsed in some areas, engulfed by ivy, and only a shell of its former self. The entirety of the interior has given way and both wire and iron fences now line the foundations to keep out the curious. Over the years, the smallpox hospital has attracted a surprisingly steady influx of onlookers on its own but largely due to the theory that its ruins are home to the paranormal.
The moniker, Renwick Ruins, comes from its architect famous for another NYC landmark just across the river. James Renwick Jr. is the influential architect behind both St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the smallpox hospital. His gothic style was a favorite for Blackwell Island as he was responsible for the Lighthouse, hospital, and the City Hospital. The City Hospital possessed the same status on the National Register of Historic Places as the smallpox hospital but was demolished decades ago due to concerns of the integrity of the structure, a fate that seems all too close for Renwick Ruins.
Construction of the three-story, 100-bed hospital was long rumored to have been started by patients from the mental asylum just north of the structure. Although hard to imagine, that grim visual isn’t too far off from reality. According to Stephen Martin, director for the Four Freedoms Park Conservatory, the smallpox hospital was built using “chain gang” prison labor. These prisoners, from a Blackwell penitentiary known for being overcrowded, corrupt, and meager, did all physical labor from processing the stone to erecting the building itself.
The location of the smallpox hospital, an island shared with inmates from both prisons and asylums, helped contain the disease as Blackwell Island was known for its isolation. Smallpox is a contagious disease spread through saliva from infected persons in which symptoms include fevers, aching, and the development of pustule filled rashes. The vaccine for this illness, developed by Edward Jenner at the turn of the 18th century, was successfully based on variolation and has helped to nearly eradicate the disease today. Despite its success, smallpox continued to reach epidemic proportions within New York City.
The largely unvaccinated population of immigrants arriving to New York further spread the danger of smallpox. The rise in cases eventually necessitated an institution that could effectively manage the symptoms of those suffering and comply with NYC’s strict policy of quarantining those who exhibited symptoms of the disease. Those who made up the population of the hospital were mostly the poor or immigrants that could not afford to overlook NYC law regarding disease quarantines and were subsequently shipped away from the city. The treatment offered by the hospital was described by some as being “zealous… attentive… and thoroughly competent” and others questioned the “deplorable conditions” that were more likely to further sicken than cure (Spiegel, p. 404).
The hospital was erected to help alleviate the rising epidemic of NYC smallpox out of charity but depending on one’s socioeconomic status, the care received varied largely. Standard care included the changing of linens, maintaining well-ventilated accommodations, and providing meals but the importance of those requirements to staff depended on whether or not patients could pay for their care. Reports on the hospital either categorized it as a landmark achievement offering“the best of care” or a “mere shanty” with inadequate accommodation (Spiegel, p. 403). Among those who loudly defended the care and conditions at the smallpox hospital was Dr. James C. Hallock Jr., a physician who sought to send diseased immigrants from his temporary Castle Garden hospital to the Blackwell Island facility.
Patients were taken to the island via ferry and in some cases, they received a police escort to ensure their admittance. Those arriving were met by grim welcomes, either the sight of stacked coffins awaiting transport back into the city or in some accounts, the dead being burned and scattered into the East River. Poor residents were separated from the wealthier, sent to the crowded wards of the first two floors of the hospital. Many of those suffering feared that they were to die in overcrowded isolation as visits from friends and family were forbidden.
The hospital, after twenty years of service, was eventually converted into a nursing school complete with quarters after the smallpox epidemic had subsided. Ever since the mid 20th century, the smallpox hospital has become dormant and only continues to decay. Many NYC historical conservation groups seek to preserve the location but its history and fate are looking grim, much like the former City Hospital. The structure that stands today is famed for the tragic history regarding the sickness and death that surrounded its very being, often bringing in a paranormal element. The shaky history of the hospital, especially in regards to the treatment of sick immigrants and poor New Yorkers, is overlooked and should be brought to the forefront of the conversation surrounding the significance of the hospital.
Sources:
Spiegel, Allen D., et al. “Smallpox and New York City’s Smallpox Hospital.” Journal of Community Health, vol. 30, no. 5, Oct. 2005, pp. 391–413. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s10900-005-5519-9.
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/nyregion/05asylum.html
https://youtu.be/Xe9NXIQFhaE
http://www.correctionhistory.org/html/chronicl/nycdoc/html/blakwel1.html