The Carville Leprosarium was carved out of an abandoned plantation 75 miles upriver from New Orleans. It served as a combination treatment and research hospital for the debilitating and disfiguring Hansen's disease, sometimes known as leprosy.
The center, which opened in 1894, was half sanctuary and half prison -- many of the afflicted who lived there were under forced quarantine. But a spirit of community blossomed among the patients, with many choosing to live on the campus even after being cured. Patients were not allowed to marry each otherat the facility until the mid-1950s.
The first nurses at Carville were nuns with the Daughters of Charity.
At its height, the sprawling Carville facility published a magazine and had its own sports fields, power plant and even a dairy. In the 1940s, researchers at Carville pioneered the use of new medicines to combat the bacterium that causes Hansen's.
The leprosarium at Carville became a federal facility in 1921, and closed in 1999, but six former patients still live on the grounds. The Hansen's Disease Museum is now operated there.
Hansen's disease is now curable.