Philadelphia’s Lazaretto
It’s the place people
ask me about the most
The main building of the Philadelphia Lazaretto was designed to impress … inspire public confidence … and handle large numbers of people. It’s now used as the Administration Building for Tinicum Township, Delaware County. Photo by Jim Murphy, author of Real Philly History, Real Fast.
When I present my popular PowerPoint program on “The Amazing Success of William Penn: How he turned a ‘howling wilderness’ into America’s fastest growing city” to area audiences … more people ask me about Philadelphia’s Lazaretto than anything else.
And that’s not surprising.
I was unaware of this intriguing place until 2012, when I did an interview at Fort Mifflin. Elizabeth H. Beatty, then executive director there, asked me if I knew about the Lazaretto. I didn’t, soon visited, and have been back many times since.
So when David Barnes, an associate professor of the history of sociology of science at the University of Pennsylvania, agreed to lead a tour for the Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides in 2024, I jumped at the chance.
Dr. Barnes has been involved with the Lazaretto since about 2006, has written an interesting book on it, and knows every inch of the site. I first met and interviewed him in 2013, and he’s been an invaluable resource ever since.
These are notes I took on my tour. I made it into Questions & Answers, because I thought this might be easier for readers to follow.
Q: What is a lazaretto?
A: The word is borrowed from the Italian word for “pesthouse” or quarantine ground. The name comes from Lazarus, the beggar covered with sores who became the patron saint of people with leprosy.
It is NOT named for the other Lazarus in the Bible who rose from the dead.
Q: Why is the Lazaretto in Philadelphia?
A: The city created it after suffering a series of terrible yellow fever epidemics in 1793, 1797, 1798 and 1799. Medical experts didn’t know what was causing these outbreaks. But they knew we had to do something to improve our residents’ health.
At first, the city placed a quarantine station at Province Island near Fort Mifflin. But it was too easy to enter and leave there. So, the city of Philadelphia built a large, very secure quarantine station about 10 miles south of the city on 10 acres it purchased in Essington, Tinicum Township, Delaware County. This Lazaretto opened in 1801.
Q: What was different about this facility?
A: It was farther away from center city and far less accessible. It was also built to impress, to maintain public confidence in the quarantine station and to handle large numbers of people. Among its many buildings, the Lazaretto included a 3 ½ story central pavilion and 2-story wings of a hospital, with room for 48 inpatients. Up to 150 people at a time were treated.
Q: What percent of ships were quarantined?
A: About 10% or more ships were detained at least briefly in the years before 1850. In later decades the figure was probably closer to 1% on average.
Q: Why did Philadelphia have so many epidemics?
A: Several reasons. Yellow fever is a port city phenomenon. Philadelphia carried on a very busy trade with ports in the West Indies, where yellow fever was very common. And in the 1790s, we were the largest and busiest port in British North America. Comparatively, New York City was a backwater. Philadelphia was then the largest, most important and most cultured city in America.
In Philadelphia, the disease usually was concentrated between Second Street and the Delaware River, from Vine to Catharine Streets. It never seemed to spread inland.
Q: How was yellow fever spread?
A: At the time, no one knew for sure. Some physicians thought Philadelphia’s worst epidemic in 1793 was caused by coffee beans rotting on the docks.
In fact, Cuban physician Carlos Finlay was ridiculed in 1881, Wikipedia says, when he suggested mosquitoes were the cause. But U.S. Army surgeon Major Walter Reed confirmed that as fact in 1900 … and helped army physician William Gorgas save thousands of lives during construction of the Panama Canal.
Q: Was the new Philadelphia Lazaretto secure?
A: It was. And had to be. No one got in or out of the main gate without permission. Even the head doctor’s wife had to write for permission to the Board of Health to go to church on Sunday.
Q: When was the Lazaretto typically open?
A: From May or June 1 to Oct. 1. Late summer to the first frost was “the sickly season” — when yellow fever usually occurred.
No disease cropped up at the Lazaretto more often than typhus; it was also known as “famine fever” or “ship fever.” The name typhus comes from the Greek word for “stupor.”
Q: How deadly was yellow fever?
A: Some years, very. In 1870, when yellow fever broke out at the Lazaretto, 14 people died. Among them: the quarantine master, head physician and head nurse.
Another 13 died near Swanson Street in Philadelphia. But the city was spared a full-fledged epidemic.
Interesting Oddities
Philadelphia Quaker Elizabeth Drinker, author of a famous diary, was astute enough to notice a connection between yellow fever and mosquitoes. On Sept. 16, 1805, she noted: “The Musquitoes are more numerous & troublesome than for some years past.” She believed the reason “of their absence latterly” had been the introduction of “the Schuylkill water, which prevents the necessity of keeping rain water standing in the yards as formerly.” Days before, she wrote: “We understand that there is 12 new Cases of Yellow fever in Southwark.”
In 1900, 60 to several hundred anonymous bodies buried at the Lazaretto were disinterred and reburied at Arlington Cemetery in Upper Darby.
Another terrible year: In 1798, “People began fleeing around August and the pace accelerated over the next two weeks. By mid-September, about 40,000 of the city’s 55,000 or 60,000 residents had left. Per capita, this was the largest urban exodus in American history.” Dr. Barnes’ book says, “the surest way to avoid yellow fewer was to ‘leave quickly, go far away, and return late.’ ”
Amazingly, the Lazaretto’s hospital had an overall survival rate of 88%. The numbers were 78% for yellow fever victims and 95 percent for typhus. Dr. Barnes credits this remarkable success to “a cure of palliative care” or supportive care … bed rest, good food and drink, clean linens and clothing and good nursing care.
Later Lives:
After being a Lazaretto for 95 years, the site became more famous for recreation and entertainment. First, it was “The Orchard,” summer home of the Athletic Club of Philadelphia, then later a seaplane base and Philadelphia School of Aviation.
Fortunately, after plans to demolish the building and make the site another airport parking lot were foiled, the Lazaretto was saved. It now serves as the Administration Building for Tinicum Township, Delaware County, and even has exhibit rooms on the first and second floors.
Food for Thought:
To get to this country, passengers on these ships endured horrible conditions over many weeks. Then they could be stuck at the Lazaretto for additional weeks, sometimes in tents and sometimes in hospital beds. Think about that when you talk about your ancestors who first came to this country. They all deserve our thanks for what they went through.
This was just a quick look at the Lazaretto.
To learn more …
Take an audio tour:
Donate money:
https://lazaretto.site/?page_id=402
Go to:
https://lazaretto.site/?page_id=302
Get Dr. Barnes’ book:
Today, Little Tinicum Island probably looks much like it did when the Lazaretto opened in 1801. Photo by Jim Murphy.