Smallpox Hospital
- Architect
- James Renwick Jr.
- Year
- 1856
- Style
- Gothic Revival
- City
- Manhattan, NY
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The Smallpox Hospital, also known as the Renwick Smallpox Hospital and later the Maternity and Charity Hospital Training School, was a hospital on Roosevelt Island designed by James Renwick Jr. It opened in 1856 with 100 beds, when the island was known as Blackwell's Island. A century later the hospital closed and the building fell into disrepair, becoming the only ruin in New York City to hold landmark status.
the building
Three-phase construction. Renwick designed the original three-story, nine-bay U-shaped main building, faced in granite veneer over load-bearing rubble masonry. The south wing was added in 1903-04 by York & Sawyer, and the north wing in 1904-05 by Renwick, Aspinwall & Owen.
the style
Renwick designed the hospital in the Gothic Revival style, expressed in its granite ashlar-pattern veneer over the original U-shaped block.
More on Gothic Revivalthe architect
James Renwick Jr. designed the original Smallpox Hospital, completed in 1856.
significance
The Smallpox Hospital was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and designated a New York City Landmark in 1976, the only ruin in the city to hold that designation. A $4.5 million stabilization project has aimed to open the ruins to the public.
nearby
- River House (New York City)
- Beekman Tower
- United Nations General Assembly Building
- Rockefeller Guest House
- 307 East 44th Street
- 310 East 44th Street