Smallpox Memorial Hospital

The Smallpox Memorial Hospital remains a striking sight, standing as the only ruin in New York City with official landmark status. James Renwick Junior, a celebrated architect who also designed Saint Patrick's Cathedral, oversaw its construction in the mid nineteenth century. The building was crafted from gneiss, a type of stone quarried directly on the island by prison inmates. When it first opened its doors in eighteen fifty-six, it served as the city's primary quarantine facility for those suffering from what was then a terrifying and highly contagious disease.