Delaware Breakwater Quarantine Station

At the end of the 19th century thousands of immigrants fled poor economic conditions in Europe by emigrating to America. In addition to their dreams of a brighter future, many of these newcomers also carried with them a variety of epidemic diseases including cholera, typhus, smallpox and bubonic plague. Realizing the threat epidemic disease posed to American urban areas, the federal government established the national Quarantine System in 1880. The purpose of this system was to prevent the entry of contagious diseases into the United States through examination of all incoming immigrants. Previously, quarantine practices had been left to individual states. The Delaware Breakwater Quarantine Station was established in 1884 to protect the cities of Wilmington and Philadelphia from contagion. Cape Henlopen, on the southeastern corner of the Delaware Bay was selected as an ideal spot for the quarantine hospital (later changed to station as it grew). This isolated bay-side location allowed authorities the opportunity to board all ships making for ports such as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The breakwater quarantine area was located three miles (by single-lane dirt road) from the town of Lewes, Delaware. The surroundings were quite desolate—41 bay-front acres of shifting sand dunes, little grass and few trees. A neighboring fish processing plant gave the settlement a certain "air," not to mention a large number of green flies attracted by the aroma. The first quarantine buildings were erected in 1884 under the direction of Dr. George Stoner. They included surgeon's quarters, a six-bed contagious ward or hospital, a kitchen, and a small shed. Lewes native, Dr. William P. Orr, Assistant Acting Surgeon of the Marine Hospital Service (and later the U.S. Public Health Service) was assigned command of the station in November 1884.

The quarantine facility opened to ships on May 1, 1885. Initially, the shipping season ran from May 1 to October 31, but the advent of large steamships (circa 1895) made winter passage possible.

The quarantine procedure was simple and straightforward. Ships carrying immigrants would anchor by the outer breakwater and raise a yellow flag. The quarantine station would send a launch, carrying its resident physician, to the ship. The doctor would inspect passengers and crew for any signs of contagious disease. At first, only the obviously ill were removed to the hospital on shore, while the ship remained in quarantine to see if anyone else developed the disease. If no one did, or the ship was deemed "clean" to begin with, it was "passed on" to its next port of call (usually Philadelphia) to be fumigated. It has been estimated that only 5 percent of the ships passing through the quarantine area had contagious disease aboard. As the 1890s approached, and the number of immigrants increased, the quarantine station's facilities were upgraded so that anyone suspected of having been in contact with a diseased person could be removed to shore for observation during the incubation period of the illness—from 2 to 12 weeks. Men's and women's barracks were added to the facility, which was now self-sufficient with its own sewer and wells. The station also boasted a bathhouse, laundry, boiler house, stables, boathouse, blacksmith, disinfecting house, crematory, and graveyard. The old contagious ward was expanded and became the "men's hospital." A women's ward and a new contagious unit were also built. Despite its efficiency of design, the stark station, staffed by "foreign" doctors and nurses, must have been an unnerving experience for immigrants already weakened by sickness and the rigors of their ocean voyage. World War I dammed the flood of immigrants to the United States. From 1917-1918, the U.S. Navy used the station as a naval base. Afterwards, the facility was kept in a state of readiness until it was officially abandoned as a quarantine area in 1926. The last of the station's buildings were removed in 1931. There is no official count, but it is estimated that more than 200,000 people passed through the Delaware Breakwater Quarantine Station on their pilgrimage to America.