Pest House

Around 1900, when successful treatment and vaccination were unavailable, isolation was the best protection against contagious disease. Victims of illnesses such as smallpox, scarlet fever, cholera, and influenza were removed to a pest house, a remote place set apart from healthy family and friends. The term came from pestilence, or disease. Transportation centers such as Mackinaw City were especially vulnerable because outbreaks from distant ports or rail yards could arrive unexpectedly on inbound boats or trains. For people who had no family to care for them, isolation in the remote pest house was the community's answer. Mackinaw City's pest house, probably the last remaining one in Michigan, originally stood on the northeast corner of the cemetery. After hospitals made the building unnecessary, the village sold it to a family in town, and it was restored in 2005.

Mackinaw City, Michigan · United States