Building Number 6 or the Marine Hospital for men was the first building erected at the
Quarantine Station in 1884. The two-story frame structure was 30-feet by 60-feet and con-
tained a ward with 12 beds and one bathroom. The pharmacist resided here. The station will
be the topic of a Lewes Historical Society meeting on Friday, April 19.
Ippolito will present talk on Quarantine
Station to Lewes Historical Society April
It would be a tough case for
Columbo. It would be a real test
for Jessica. And Sherlock Holmes
would need all of the "brilliant de-
ductions" his able sidekick Wat-
son could muster to unravel this
"mystery." Although it doesn't
deal with international espionage,
it isn't a murder case, and the
Crown Jewels have not suddenly
vanished, it's a mystery whose
many disconnected details are still
being unraveled. "
The "mystery" is the fragment-
ed story of the Delaware Break-
water Quarantine Station located
at what is today Cape Henlopen
State Park. And on Friday, April
19, members of the Lewes Histor-
ical Society will have an opportu-
nity to hear about one of the
Cape's most intriguing sagas:
"The Delaware Breakwater Quar-
antine Station-A Forgotten Her-
itage." Presented by Lewes histo-
rian Jim Ippolito, the meeting will
be held in the Lewes Presbyterian
Chuch Hall at 8 p.m.
According to Ippolito, from
1884 to 1914 more than 200,000
immigrants passed through the
station to be checked for conta-
gious diseases. "When so many
people began to emigrate to the
United States, there was consider-
able concern that.they might be
carrying epidemic diseases such
as smallpox, cholera, typhus and
the like," explained Ippolito. "So
the federal government estab-
lished a National Quarantine Sys-
tem in 1880 to examine everyone
coming into the country. Cape
Henlopen was chosen because it
was convenient for ships going up
the Delaware Bay to immigration
headquarters in Philadelphia. It
was selected also because it was
in an isolated area. Heavily popu-
lated urban areas would have ex-
posed more Americans to possible
contamination," he added.
The Breakwater Quarantine
Station's location probably con-
tributed to much of the mystery
surrounding its operation, said Ip-
polito. He became aware of the
station in 1981 during a Delaware
exhibit at the Zwaanendael Muse-
um commemorating Lewes' 350th
Anniversary. "Two photographs
in the display were labeled simply
'Surgeon's Office' and 'Quaran-
tine Station.' But no one seemed
to know anything about them oth-
er than that they were from the
State Archives," he said. "As an
assistant at the museum, I was in-
trigued by this historical mys-
tery." Thus began a quest that
spans more than 15 years.
He will discuss what he has un-
covered about the people who
built and ran the station, the facili-
ties which accommodated the
thousands of immigrants who
passed through it and the Station's
eventual demise. One Lewes resi-
dent who would remember it, Ip-
polito said, is Robert Orr, son of
the station's first Surgeon,
William T. Orr. Also, a house on
Savannah Road is constructed of
bricks from one of the buildings.
The station was abandoned in
1926 and dismantled years later.
Ippolito speculated that because
of what the Quarantine Station
meant to the immigrants treated
there and the fear of the spread of
contagious diseases, the memory
of the site was quickly erased
from everyone's mind: "Few peo-
ple want to remember a facility
whose staff fumigated an entire
ship's quarters with sulfur disin-
fectant or steamed immigrants'
luggage and belongings. Typical-
ly the names of immigrants treat-
ed were not recorded. Many "sus-
pects"-people exposed to a dis-
ease on board a vessel-were fumi-
gated and then observed on shore
for up to 90 days depending on the
incubation period for the disease.
He speculated that some area
residents could even be descen-
dants of the more than 200,000
immigrants detained arid treated.
They were probably frightened,
Continued on page 46
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