The quarantine station of Grosse Ile

Grosse Ile is an island situated on the St. Lawrence River, east of Quebec City. The island is owned by the Government of Canada (Parks Canada) and is host of the Irish Memorial National Historic Site. The island was the point of entry for waves of immigration between the years of 1832 and 1937. Grosse Ile served as a human quarantine station. The Memorial commemorates the arrival of more than 4 million immigrants during this period, particularly, Irish immigrants, during the typhoid epidemic of 1847.

Escaping the Great Famine which was ravaging their country, nearly 100 000 Irish men, women and children crossed the ocean, coming to Canada between 1845 and 1849. More than 5000 are buried on the island. In the Irish cemetery are buried the victims of the cholera and typhus epidemics of 1832 and 1847. As one can see on the picture of cemetery, signs of the trenches dug for the mass burials of 1847 are still visible; before that date, individual burials were made. In order to commemorate this important part of Canadian history, as well as the other successive arrivals of Irish, a memorial for the Irishmen was erected in 1998 by Parks Canada. A Celtic cross was built in 1909 by the Ancient Order of Hibernians to commemorate the burial of the Irishmen on the island. Three languages – French, English and Gaelic – are used on the monument to recall the tragedy.

Following the tragedy of 1847, the authorities changed the structure of the island to accommodate the immigrants. The western part of the island welcomed the healthy immigrants, the centre was reserved for the administration and for the island’s workers, and the eastern part was for the sick inhabitants. Three hotels were built on the western part of the island for the passengers under medical observation. They were lodged in the hotels according to the social class they occupied on the ship. Other buildings were also erected to accommodate the immigrants. For example, the wash house was used by the immigrants to their clothes. It was built in 1855-1856 and is located near the shoreline. From left to right, you can see on the picture the wash house, the first-class hotel, the second-class hotel and the third-class hotel.

Government employees were recruited to operate Grosse Ile’s quarantine station. First used as a temporary site, the village of St-Louis-de-la-Grosse-Ile, located at the centre of the island, was built to accommodate the permanent employees of the quarantine station. This little community included physicians, nurses and many others, such as priests and pastors, bakers, teachers, sailors, and their family. Nurses were required to remain unmarried due to social code at the time. Their house (on your left) represents this situation, as built as semi-detached unit. Physicians lived in two-storey brick houses (on your right). Interestingly, the physicians’ houses are among the first pre-fabricated houses in Canada. Both houses, the nurses’ and physicians’ houses, were built in 1912. Two chapels, a Catholic and an Anglican one, were also built on the island, to serve the community of employees and the immigrants. These chapels, being located at the centre of the island, meant that only the employees could visit them. However, the priests and pastors were permitted to travel to the western and eastern parts of the island to offer their services to the immigrants. The Catholic chapel was built in 1874. It is made of wood and is among the first buildings on the island to have a solid foundation instead of pillars. It is also located at the centre of the village, as we saw with the Catholic community at Percé. The Anglican chapel (on your left) was built a few years later, in 1877-1878. It is also made of wood and is located on a hill, at the outskirts the village, near the St. Lawrence River.

The sick population was located at the eastern part of the island. Twelve buildings, called lazarettos, were where the patient received care. Only one is still standing (on your left). It was built in 1847 and is among the oldest buildings on the island. Contrarily to the western part of the island, patients were not housed according to their social standing. An interesting detail about the lazarettos is the presence of aeration vents (on your right), used to help evacuate what they believed at the time to be sickness clouds called miasmas. Indeed, ventilation was positive for patients since it meant that the air was constantly purified. Another interesting detail is the presence of red rooms (on your left) in lazarettos as of 1904, approximately. Due to the idea that sunlight was dangerous for smallpox sufferers, the glass of the windows in certain rooms was red. By putting red filters, an invigorating color, it was believed that the patients had a better chance of survival. A more modern hospital was built in 1881, but was destroyed by fire in 1968.

On a more personal note, I would like to mention that I really appreciated my trip to Grosse Ile. I went there with friends and colleagues from my research centre here at Laval University. The island is really nice and interesting for its important part in Canadian history. I would also have to say that the boat trip to the island was a big part of the fun too!

If you would like more information about Grosse Ile, I suggest you check out Parks Canada’s website: http://www.pc.gc.ca/. I would like to thank my friend and colleague Samantha Sylvain who accepted to look over this text. My English would not be as good without her help.