In the past, a pest house or pesthouse was a hospital or hostel used for persons afflicted with communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, cholera, or smallpox. Often used for forcible quarantine, many towns and cities had one or more pesthouses accompanied by a cemetery or a waste pond nearby for disposal of the dead.

A 2007 novel by Jim Crace is entitled, The Pesthouse.

References

• Freedictionary definition

External links

• Lynchburg VA Museum pesthouse
• Findon Pesthouse
• The Pest House Odiham
• Pest house memories by Doug Monroe (review of The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M. Barry)