Fever Hospital

Two adjoining barracks were built on this site between 1837 and 1840 as a two-story complex stretching the length of the present parking lot. Because of problems with smoke, cold, and dampness, the building was converted to stores in 1842. From 1846 to 1859, part of it served as a prison. After 1870, it was used as a quarantine hospital and became an important centre for treating diphtheria, smallpox, and tuberculosis after the destruction of St. George’s hospital in 1892. New facilities in St. John’s replaced it early in the twentieth century, and the hospital stood empty when fire destroyed it on December 18, 1920. In a vacant room in this hospital, Guglielmo Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal.

Newfoundland and Labrador · Canada