Lazaretto Quarantine Station

Near the fire station at the edge of Essington stands one of the rarest surviving structures in American immigration history. The Lazaretto was Pennsylvania's official quarantine station, established in seventeen ninety-nine after a devastating yellow fever epidemic swept through Philadelphia and killed thousands.

For nearly a century, every ship arriving at Philadelphia with cargo or passengers from foreign ports had to stop here first. Health officers boarded vessels and inspected them. Cargo suspected of carrying disease was fumigated or destroyed outright. Passengers showing signs of illness were taken off the ship and hospitalized on site, held in quarantine until they recovered or died. A cemetery once stood nearby for those who did not survive. The station operated until eighteen ninety-three, and the original buildings still stand, making the Lazaretto one of the oldest surviving quarantine facilities in the entire country and a quiet monument to the thousands of immigrants who passed through it before they ever set foot in America.