Patients' Dormitories, constructed 1940-41.

ID: 2981 ~ Source: Image Courtesy of the National Hansen's Disease Museum, Permanent Collection. Carville, LA.

This file appears in: Carville, The National Leprosarium: Patient Life

Patients' Dormitories, constructed 1940-41.

Each new "house" had individual rooms for 30 patients. Living rooms and bathrooms were shared areas on each floor.

Screened porches, front and back, added to air circulation. Air-conditioning didn't become available until the late 1960s.

The covered and screened corridors connecting all dorms gave patients, many in wheelchairs, maximum mobility and independence.

This file appears in: Carville, The National Leprosarium: Patient Life

Carville, The National Leprosarium: Patient Life

By Elizabeth Schexnyder, Curator, National Hansen's Disease Museum, Carville, LA & Kyle Hymel

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…