Smallpox Memorial Hospital, New York

About Smallpox Memorial Hospital

Smallpox Memorial Hospital is a historic ruin on Roosevelt Island designed by architect James Renwick Jr. and opened in 1856 to treat and isolate smallpox patients during a public health crisis. The building later served as a nurses' training school before standing empty for decades. Visitors walk through the existing stone structure and experience the landscape within and around it as a New York City Landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The hospital stands at the southern tip of Roosevelt Island with direct views across the East River toward the United Nations. Friends of the Ruin organization is working to stabilize the building and restore its grounds, making the site accessible to the public for the first time since the 1950s. The memorial tells the story of how New York treated, contained, and eventually helped eradicate a disease that killed three in ten people who contracted it.