Galveston Quarantine Stations
Galveston, Galveston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
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)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
As unregulated immigration through Galveston in the late 1830s fueled outbreaks of yellow fever, the young city built Texas's first quarantine station in 1853 on the island's eastern tip. Successive stations were repeatedly destroyed by hurricanes and rebuilt by city, state, and finally federal authorities, culminating in a ten-building federal facility completed on Pelican Island in 1915. Before it closed in 1950, the Pelican Island station inspected some 30,000 ships and screened an estimated 750,000 immigrants arriving in Texas.
Why it matters
Galveston was a major gateway for immigrants entering the American South and West, and its quarantine stations show how public health and immigration policy intertwined at the nation's ports.
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Related people
- · Walter Gresham
Themes & tags
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