Every city experiences growing pains along the way, and
Davenport, Iowa is no different. As population and businesses
grew during the nineteenth century the city began to adapt.
Davenport’s city council realized early on that two medical
facilities to treat different medical needs were required as the
town expanded: a hospital and a pest house. It was not unusual
during the nineteenth, and even early twentieth, century for
hospitals to only treat patients suffering from non-communicable
diseases: broken bones, diarrhea, rheumatism and the like. The
pest house, or pestilence house, was built for those with
contagious diseases such as cholera, smallpox or measles.
Frequently found on hospital properties or near a cemetery,
these buildings were not built for long standing use, but to get
through epidemics. In Davenport, pest houses seem to have had
shorter existences than usual. City council research indicates
that a city hospital was available in Davenport by the early
1850s. City council minutes of June 6, 185