User:MainePatriot/Pest Island

Pest Island, once known as Henzell's Island, is an island off the coast of Portsmouth, NH, across Route 1B from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. It came to be known as Pest Island in the early 19th century after a pest house was built there.

In 1782, Four local physicians received permission to establish a private hospital on Henzell’s Island.

For years, a pest house had been operated on Shapley's (now Shapleigh's) Island, where the contagious population was quarantined from the main population since the island was disconnected from the mainland. But once the island was connected to the mainland by bridges in 1822, the pest house had to be moved.