Carville Historic District

The Carville Historic District in Carville, Louisiana, is a 60-acre (24 ha) historic district that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 18, 1992.[1] It formerly served as a treatment facility for leprosy, and was called the National Leprosarium, Gillis W. Long Hansen's Disease Center and Public Health Service Hospital No. 66.

Carville Historic District
Location5445 Point Clair Road, Carville, Louisiana
Coordinates30°11′52″N 91°07′37″W
Area60 acres (24 ha)
Built1859, 1939-1941
ArchitectNeill P. Thompson; Henry Howard
Architectural styleClassical Revival, Italianate
NRHP reference No.92001529[1]
Added to NRHPNovember 18, 1992
A building in the complex

In 1992, the district included 24 contributing buildings and two contributing structures, most built during 1939–1941 by architect/builder Neill P. Thompson.[2][3] It contains the National Hansen's Disease Museum, a historical museum about the facility.[4]

History

Plantation

The property was originally a sugar plantation. The main house was built in 1859 for sugar planter Robert C. Camp.[2][3]

Private leper home

Located on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River in Carville, Louisiana, the National Leprosarium was one of two leprosy hospitals in the United States. An abandoned sugar plantation became the Louisiana Leper Home in 1894.[5] Eventually the facility would develop into a hospital that promoted understanding, identification, and treatment of leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease. But in the early days, there was no effective medical treatment, and patients entered the gates under mandatory quarantine and many never left the hospital again.[6]

The "Home" began work with a patient load of five men and two women in the 1890s. Louisiana Leper Home was known as "a place of refuge, not reproach; a place of treatment and research, not detention". It offered hope and a comfortable refuge from society.[7] Over the next century, the property would develop into a world class hospital, housing hundreds of employees and patients, including married couples and children.

National Leprosarium

In 1921, the U.S. Public Health Service took control and the facility became U.S. Marine Hospital Number 66, the National Leprosarium of the United States.[8] Patient Stanley Stein,[9] known as "Carville's Crusader", began a two-page newsletter in 1931. It grew into The STAR, a world-renowned newspaper that is still in publication.[6]

When the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital system was abolished in 1981,[10] the National Leprosarium was the only hospital that escaped transfer to another organization.[8] This was due to the efforts of United States Congressman Gillis W. Long. He was an advocate for people living and working with Hansen's disease. Long was successful in lobbying Congress to keep Carville open for the patients who wanted to remain on site, even though mandatory quarantine ceased to be law some years before. In 1986, the facility became the Gillis W. Long Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy) Center; the name change was directly linked to Congressman Long's influence in keeping the hospital open.

In 1992, the Carville Historic District was established and in 1996 the National Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy) Museum was founded.[8]

Closure

The U.S. Congress passed a bill to relocate the Gillis W. Long Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy) Center to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and as of 1999 the National Hansen's Disease Programs continues its clinical care and research for Hansen's disease in Baton Rouge.[8]

The Federal Government returned the site to the State of Louisiana in 1999. The state of Louisiana created a military base where the Louisiana National Guard currently operates a boot-camp style school for at-risk youth.[8] There are other military and government tenants onsite. In addition to the museum, up until 2015, the grounds remained home to a few elderly residents who chose to stay after the hospital's official closing.[7]

The Foundation for Historical Louisiana currently lists the site on its Treasures in Trouble list stating that many structures require extensive repairs and maintenance.[11]

National Hansen's Disease Museum
National Hansen's Disease Museum (USA)
Established1996
Location5445 Point Clair Rd
Carville, Louisiana 70721
Coordinates30.195654°N 91.125682°W / 30.195654; -91.125682
CuratorElizabeth Schexnyder, telephone 225-642-1950
Websitehttp://www.hrsa.gov/hansens-disease/museum

The National Hansen’s Disease Museum's exhibits include a history of the Carville facility, the United States Public Health Service and Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul who cared for the residents. Other exhibits include a recreated 1940s-era patient's room, stories of patients, their daily lives as residents and the problems they faced and information on Hansen's disease and advances in treatment.[12]

Immediately after Hurricane Katrina, the town of Carville became the temporary home for thousands of National Guard troops and public health officials assisting with relief efforts. Museum officials interviewed several of the personnel and recorded their responses. They also photographed the damage in nearby communities and the tasks the workers faced to help restore these areas. The museum created a new collection for these materials.[12]

Other archival collections include photos and records of the Daughters of Charity who worked as nurses, teachers, researchers, medical librarians, and pharmacists from 1896 to 2005; The 66 Star a bi-monthly patient newsletter issued between 1931 and 1934 and its successor, The STAR, which began publication in 1941 and continues today. The archives also holds copies of The Question Mark, a student newsletter that began in the 1940s and The Point Clarion, the employee newsletter.[12]

Architecture


The "anchor" for the Carville Historic District is the Indian Camp Plantation House, the antebellum main house of a sugar plantation which is the only surviving building from the plantation. It was

designed and built by New Orleans architect Henry Howard (and perhaps his partner Albert Diettel) in 1859 for sugar planter Robert C. Camp. It is a raised stucco over brick transitional Greek Revival Italianate mansion featuring a central mass with a hexastyle double gallery and flanking two story wings. Fluted Corinthian columns over heavily rusticated pillars support the gallery. Column capitals are correctly fashioned from double rows of acanthus leaf carvings with volutess or scrolls springing from the centers. Rather thin, molded and decorated abacus blocks supply the transition from columns to architrave. / The facade is well detailed with Italianate features, including rows of brackets, segmental openings, and panels. Above the gallery is a busy entablature with a bracketed, dentiled frieze under a projecting cornice and a segmented, paneled parapet. The bracket and dentil motif of the principal frieze continues around the returning entablature to terminate at the juncture of the house and gallery, only to reappear in a modified form of elongated brackets spaced across the wings, down the sides, and onto the rear. Meanwhile, the square, post and lintel fenestration of the central block contrasts with segmental openings in the wings. These features, together with the deep rustication of the central pillars and the heavy cast-iron gallery railings, impart a heavy sculptural quality to the facade. From every angle, front and rear, a certain dynamism emerges from broken up surfaces and contrasting motifs.[2][3]

Contributing properties

The historical district contains a total of 26 contributing properties, built between 1859 and 1941:

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  2. "Carville Historic District / Gillis W. Long Hansen's Disease Center / Public Health Service hospital #66" (PDF). State of Louisiana's Division of Historic Preservation. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 29, 2017. Retrieved March 28, 2017. with four photos and two maps Archived 2017-03-29 at the Wayback Machine
  3. William D. Reeves, Sally K. Reeves (July 1991). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Carville Historic District". National Park Service. Retrieved June 19, 2018. With 28 photos from 1992.
  4. Sternberg, Mary Ann (2005-01-14). "Flood of memories fills museums on River Road". Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on November 3, 2006.
  5. Garry Boulard (29 November 1993). "Only U.S. leper colony faces uncertain future : Scientific advances, budget cuts could close the Louisiana facility". Los Angeles Times. LATimes.com. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
  6. Maria C. Montoya (7 August 2009). "National Hansen's Disease Museum in Carville shows how leprosy patients built a rich life amid all the fear". (New Orleans) Times-Picayune. nola.com. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
  7. Susan Larson (10 June 1999). "The legacy of Carville--National Hansen's Disease Center and onetime federal prison". (New Orleans) Times-Picayune. nola.com. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
  8. "History of the National Hansen's Disease (Leprosy) Program". HHS-Health Resources and Services Administration. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
  9. Klinger, Jerry. "Searching for Stanley Stein" (PDF). www.jewish-american-society-for-historic-preservation.org. Retrieved 2019-06-18.
  10. "United States. Public Health Service. Division of Hospitals". SNAC. Retrieved 2020-08-31.
  11. "Carville Historic District". Foundation for Historical Louisiana. 2 November 2007. Archived from the original on 2 October 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
  12. "National Hansen's Disease Museum-Collections & Exhibitions". HHS-Health Resources and Services Administration. Archived from the original on 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
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