History

Penikese Island History: The Leper Colony

Efforts to keep the Anderson School going after Louis Agassiz's death ran out of steam, and after a fire in 1875, the school was essentially abandoned in favor of other similar schools being started elsewhere, such as Woods Hole's Marine Biological Laboratory.

Somewhere in the late 1800s, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts took ownership of the island by eminent domain, and sometime after that Penikese was put in play as a possible site for a national or regional leprosarium. Given attitudes and ignorance about leprosy, or Hansen's Disease, still prevalent 100 years ago, there was considerable resistance from Penikese Island's neighbors around the Buzzards Bay rim. Nevertheless, facilities were constructed and in November 1905, the first leper was transported to Penikese.

At the time of its founding, the leper colony was set up in a traditional manner by dividing the island and assigning the lepers to one side of the island and their caretakers to another. Remnants of this division are evidenced today by two concrete gateposts, first built by Anderson as apart of his vacation home, and then later used in the manner above. After a few years, management of the colony and treatment for its lepers was turned over to the admired Dr. and Mrs. Frank Parker, who came with a much more compassionate and sensible attitude towards the woe-begotten lepers.

With the opening of a national leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana, Penikese's leper colony closed in 1922 when the last of the surviving lepers were transported south by rail. The state hired demolition crews to destroy the leprosarium's buildings, and then put the island up for public auction. There were no bids, so the state maintained its ownership and, in recognition of the island's strategic importance as a nesting site for migratory seabirds, designated Penikese Island wildlife sanctuary in the late 20s or early 30s.

Today, visitors can walk through the gateposts, visit the leper cemetery with its 14 graves, and see what remains of the leper cottage foundations and their laundry in which they steam-cleaned their clothing in hopes of deterring the disease's spread. All the lepers buried in the cemetery have their own story, each of which is recounted by Tom Buckley in his book Island of Hope as part of a walking tour. There are numerous other accounts of Penikese's leper colony available in various media, including PBS' 1994 special, "The Lepers of Buzzards Bay", narrated by Doris Kearns Goodwin.