Breakwater Quarantine facilities converted to U.S. Naval Base

These buildings, on Delaware Bay-front in Lewes, stood near what is now the Cape Henlopen State Park fishing pier.

They were constructed in 1880 to monitor the arrival of incoming European immigrants on board ships entering the bay out of concern that they might be bringing infectious diseases into the country. Over the next 30 years, an estimated 200,000 people were screened, processed and medically treated - if necessary - through these quarantine facilities. Those who died were buried in a nearby cemetery.

The quarantine operations closed down in 1917 when the facilities were converted for use as a U.S. Naval Base where minesweeping vessels and their crews working the entrance of Delaware Bay were stationed. The buildings were eventually razed with nothing left of them now other than an historical marker and some concrete foundation remnants.