Carville: The National Leprosarium
Tour Description
9-stop audio driving tour of the Carville Historic District, site of leprosy (Hansen's disease) quarantine hospital and treatment center from 1894-1999.
This hospital-community was designed to be self-sustainable. Quarantine laws dictated the development of the site into separate staff and patient areas. The tour covers the original sugar plantation (Indian Camp), the State of Louisiana's development of the Louisiana Leper Home (1894-1920), Daughters of Charity (Catholic nursing order), patient life, leprosy/Hansen's disease treatment, US Public Health Service administration of the National Leprosarium (1921-1999), and current treatment and research.
Locations for Tour
Indian Camp Plantation / Louisiana Leper Home
In the 1700s, Europeans settled this area known as Indian Camp and developed a plantation economy along the Mississippi River. Robert Camp, a planter from Virginia, began purchasing land here in the 1820s. He farmed sugarcane and owned about 100…
Federal Staff Housing, Site Utilities, The National Leprosarium
The State of Louisiana ran this 450 acre site as the Louisiana Leper Home from 1894 to 1921. In 1921, the Federal Government purchased the site for $35,000; the patient census was about 300. The United States Public Health Service (PHS) took…
Hansen's Disease
Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease (HD), is a chronic disease of the skin and peripheral nerves.
95% of the world’s population is naturally immune to the disease. Mycobacterium leprae, the causative agent, was first identified under the…
Infirmary, National Leprosarium, Carville, Louisiana.
The infirmary, built in 1933, had 68 beds in two open wards--men upstairs and women downstairs. Architects provided screened porches across the front of the building to allow patients fresh air. Notice the flat roof. Originally canopies had been…
Carville, The National Leprosarium: Patient Life
In 1940, the patient population was between 400 and 450 and a massive renovation was underway. The improved hospital created individual rooms for 450 patients and the 13” thick concrete walls made the buildings as fireproof as possible. Fire was…
Lake Johansen, Station Farm, and Sports & Leisure at the National Leprosarium, Carville, Louisiana
Up until the 1950s, the 80 or so acres ahead and to the left of you were farmed by about 30 laborers who grew fruits and vegetables to feed the staff and patients.
Corn was grown to feed livestock. Pigs, chickens and beef cattle were raised in…
Carville Jail and Cottage Grove
Like any small town, Carville offered various services to its inhabitants. A one room school house educated the people quarantined at the site. Sacred Heart Chapel hosted Catholic services facilitated by the Daughters of Charity. Eventually it was…
Carville Patients' Cemetery, National Leprosarium.
The Carville cemetery is the only stop on the tour where you may exit your vehicle and take photographs. Just beyond the cemetery is a hospital incinerator with a driving ramp and tower built in the 1920s to dispose of all waste. Remember that…
Carville: Silos for Dairy Barn & Armadillo Research
The two silos and barns in front of you were built for a dairy herd in the 1920s. By the mid-1950s, an outside vendor was supplying milk to the Leprosarium and the barn fell into disrepair.
Hansen's Disease (HD) has never been easy to study…