Skip to main content
New Orleans Historical
Stories Tours

Map

Skip Interactive Map

Stories by author "Elizabeth Schexnyder, Curator, National Hansen's Disease Museum, Carville, LA": 7

Stories

  • All
  • Tags
  • Sitewide Search
  • Story Search

Lake Johansen, Station Farm, and Sports & Leisure at the National Leprosarium, Carville, Louisiana

By Elizabeth Schexnyder, Curator, National Hansen's Disease Museum, Carville, LA
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…

Federal Staff Housing, Site Utilities, The National Leprosarium

By Elizabeth Schexnyder, Curator, National Hansen's Disease Museum, Carville, LA
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…

Infirmary, National Leprosarium, Carville, Louisiana.

By Elizabeth Schexnyder, Curator, National Hansen's Disease Museum, Carville, LA
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 Patients' Cemetery, National Leprosarium.

By Elizabeth Schexnyder, Curator, National Hansen's Disease Museum, Carville, LA
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, 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…

Hansen's Disease

By Elizabeth Schexnyder, Curator, National Hansen's Disease Museum, Carville, LA
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…

Carville: Silos for Dairy Barn & Armadillo Research

By Elizabeth Schexnyder, Curator, National Hansen's Disease Museum, Carville, LA
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…
  • Home
  • Stories
  • Tours
  • About
View A Random Story
App Store Google Play
Email Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram
This work is licensed by The Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies at the University of New Orleans under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License.
Powered by Omeka + Curatescape
Support Our Work
Funding for technical support provided by anonymous donors in memory of the Samuelson, Wolfson, and Fertel families.

  • Home
  • Stories
  • Tours
  • About