Vignette of medical history: Lazaretto Point

During the Black Death's reign in the fifteenth century, a number of installations providing care for lepers were converted into quarantine stations. Known as lazarettos or pesthouses, they served as disinfection way stations for travelers and, later, as hospitals for those diagnosed with pestilential diseases (e.g., smallpox, typhus, cholera). Beginning in the late 1700s, quarantine stations and pesthouses were established in the Baltimore area, including Hawkins Point, Lazaretto Point, Fairfield, and Leading Point.