Details for Galveston Quarantine Stations

Historical Marker — Atlas Number 5167007474

Data

Marker Number 7474
Atlas Number 5167007474
Marker Title Galveston Quarantine Stations
Index Entry Galveston Quarantine Stations
Address 700 Pelican Island Causeway
City Galveston
County Galveston
UTM Zone 15
UTM Easting 327327
UTM Northing 3246502
Subject Codes immigration; medical topics and health professionals; water topics
Marker Year 1993
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark No
Marker Location Seawolf Park
Private Property No
Marker Condition In Situ
Marker Size 27" x 42"
Marker Text Unregulated entry of immigrants through Galveston in the late 1830s greatly contributed to local outbreaks of yellow fever and other communicable diseases. The young city instituted quarantine measures in 1839 and in 1853 built Texas' first quarantine station on the eastern tip of Galveston Island. Yellow fever returned to plague the community in 1867 and 1868. A larger quarantine station, built by the city in 1870, was destroyed by hurricane winds in 1875. The state built new facilities in 1879 and again in 1885 at a site in Galveston known as Port Point. Ships suspected of harboring infected crew, passengers, or cargo were not allowed to enter Galveston's port. A new station, built on nearby Pelican Island by the state in 1892, was destroyed in the storm of 1900. Texas built its last quarantine station at the Fort Point site in 1902. This station merged with Federal operations in 1919. A federally funded 10-structure quarantine facility, secured with the help of Galveston's Federal Liaison Colonel Walter Gresham, was completed here on Pelican Island in 1915. The Pelican Island Federal Quarantine Station, which closed in 1950, inspected an estimated 30,000 ships that brought an estimated 750,000 immigrants to Texas during its 35 years of operation. (1993)

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