Souza Araujo describes this institution at Paredão as being located on the left margin of Rio Negro, twenty minutes by car from Manáus, forty-five minutes by launch. It was constructed over three years (1926-1929).
The main buildings were all of wood, and consisted of a main refectory, a general kitchen, a building for entertainment, named ‘Escola-theatro Souza Araujo‘. There were also six houses with tiled varandas, holding twenty beds and two bathrooms. One of these buildings was the hospital. There were also twenty semi-detached buildings for two married couples, or four single people; a house for the priests; a launderette; a prison.
The State Governor, Dr Ephigenio Salles, announced the inauguration at the end of 1929. However, the 171 patients from Umirisal, who had been transferred to the hospitality of the Immigrantes de Paricatuba, could not be moved to this new leprosarium due to the unfinished plumbing system. In 1930 the State Governor, Dr Dorval Porto, invited Dr Achilles Lisboa to be the establishment’s director. Upon his arrival, Lisboa condemned the institution as inadequate.
The institution was abandoned for three years. Four months before Araujo was writing, the Salesian monks began to remove electrical, water and drainage fittings. Even lamp posts were torn out of the ground or chopped with axes.
This plundering caused financial harm to the State, as money would have to be re-spent on reinstalling the services taken. At the time of Araujo writing, the situation had not been solved.
(Araujo, H C S. ‘Contribuição á epidemiologia e prophylaxia da lepra no norte do Brasil: III.- A lepra no Estado do Amazonas’. Mem. Inst. Osw. Cruz, 1933:27 (3))