Smallpox Hospital

You are standing before the only ruin in New York City to hold official landmark status. This jagged, vine-covered shell was designed by James Renwick Junior, the same architect who created the Smithsonian Institution and Saint Patrick's Cathedral. When it opened in 1856, it stood as the first major hospital in the United States dedicated exclusively to treating smallpox victims. It was built during a time when the island, then called Blackwell's Island, was used to isolate those society deemed undesirable, and the labor for its construction was performed by the inmates of the local penitentiary.