When a smallpox epidemic struck Boston in 1764, hundreds of people closed their homes and fled the city, hoping to get out before they fell ill. The Reveres, however, did not leave. When one of the Reveres' children became sick, Paul Revere had to appear before the selectmen of Boston to tell them. It was important for city leaders to know who was infected so that they could quarantine them. The selectmen told Revere that he had to send his child to a pesthouse.
Cities often set up pesthouses during epidemics in abandoned buildings on the outskirts of town.
Pesthouses were designed simply to separate sick people from those who were healthy in hopes of stopping the disease from spreading. Patients in pesthouses received little or no medical attention and their condition often became worse rather than better. Paul Revere did not want to send his child to such a place. For this reason, he requested permission to keep his child at home under the family's care. The town agreed to Paul's request but assigned a guard to make certain that none of the Reveres left the building and no visitors entered.