Reddit TIL - Carville Leprosarium

Used to play golf there with a buddy from high school and a patient there named "Lefty". He (the patient) only had one full arm from the leprosy but could still drive it 200+. They had a 9 hole course that was either really, really cheap (like a buck) or was free. That was like 25 years ago.

I was at that place for a few days doing a small electrical job probably 1998. It was cool to wander around then, and they still had just a few patients there at the time.

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It was cool to wander around then, and they still had just a few patients there at the time.

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I recall patients being there until at least the early 2000s - I believe the last remaining have been moved to Oschner's in BR. The entire facility is a Louisiana National Guard base, now. My old unit, the 415th MI battalion moved there sometime in the mid-to-late 1990s, and used many of the old hospital buildings until the armory was completed.

There is a Youth Challenge program there, among other activities. We used it extensively during Hurricane Katrina/Rita recovery operations, as Jackson Barracks was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina.

Good info Ace.

Place has a pretty cool history. I like learning things like this.

One of my good friend's little sister had leprosy her in BR. Made national news and everything. I went over to pick him up one night and People magazine was there doing a photo shoot haha

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Posted by Message fightin tigers Reddit TIL - Carville Leprosarium I was told that indeed there were residents until the early 2000's. Knew a couple that worked there with the national guard.

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There are still exactly 13 leprosy residents living there. The residents who where there when the federal government turned to facility over to the state were offered $40,000.00 per year for housing if they wanted to leave or they had the option of staying for life. Many of the most elderly had no family do anywhere to go and stayed. And naturally their numbers have dwindled.

Their is a youth corp that lives their as well and of course the National Guard units listed above.

And the golf course is still there. I had lunch there today.

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There are still exactly 13 leprosy residents living there. The residents who where there when the federal government turned to facility over to the state were offered $40,000.00 per year for housing if they wanted to leave or they had the option of staying for life. Many of the most elderly had no family do anywhere to go and stayed.

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Many of the final 80 or so were from Polynesia and Micronesia - many came to the hospital as children in the 1930s to 1950s and have known no other home, so it makes sense that many of them have chosen to live out their lives there (and be buried in the cemetary.)

Most of the early effective treatments for leprosy were developed at Carville - including promin and dapsone. Dapsone is still part of the multi-drug treatment for leprosy, today.

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Another bit of trivia, fantasy/science fiction author Stephen R. Donaldson's most famous work is the Chronicles of Thomas Convenant, the Unbeliever - and the main character is a leper and receives treatment at the hospital in Carville (I believe written and set in the 70s and 80s).

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Will have to check that out. Im a big reader and have nothing but time while offshore.

This is a great read about Carville:

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Following conviction for bank fraud, White spent a year in a minimum-security prison in Carville, La., housed in the last leper colony in mainland America. His fascinating memoir reflects on the sizable group of lepers living alongside the prisoners, social outcasts among the motley inmate crew of drug dealers, mob types and killers. Narrating in colorful, entertaining snapshots, White introduces the reader to an excellent supporting cast in his imprisonment: Father Reynolds, the peerless spiritual monk; Mr. Flowers, the no-nonsense case manager; Anne, the sorrowful mother with leprosy whose baby was taken from her arms; and Ella the Earth Mother, with wisdom to spare. Brisk, ironic and perceptive, White's introspective memoir puts a magnifying glass to a flawed life, revealing that all of life is to be savored and respected.

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