It was the site of a major quarantine facility for immigration from 1866 to 1938 and is today owned by the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources as part of the McNabs Island provincial park reserve.
Measuring approximately 55 hectares (136 acres), it is located opposite MacCormacks Beach in Eastern Passage, just east of McNabs Island in the Halifax Regional Municipality.
Many port officials and doctors also protested against the idea, being concerned that Lawlor's Island had no natural springs or fresh water, and also that the flow of ice during the winter would create difficulties in bringing boats in.
With advances in medical science, the discovery of penicillin and vaccination programs, major infectious diseases were now a much reduced threat to public health, and the emergency use of Lawlor's Island as a quarantine station was falling rapidly.
Following the Paris International Sanitary Convention of 1926, the Canadian deputy minister of health decided in 1936 that it would cease to house quarantine patients on the island.
In place of Lawlor's Island, the government used a quarantine space at the Pier 21 immigration terminal and created an isolation ward at the former Rockhead Prison in Halifax's North End in 1938.
The island was purchased by the Canadian government for use as a medical station during the Second World War, to treat venereal diseases brought back by servicemen from Europe.
Tolstoy acted on their behalf and direct instructions[clarification needed] from Dr Frederick Montizambert on leave from Grosse Île quarantine station during this time.
Probably encouraged by the high wages being paid, the new residents from Russia built a two-storey annex needed for a new detention centre for third class patients.
Although rusted and weathered, the large double steel walled autoclave and boiler that disinfected clothing and luggage with high pressure steam, remains on the northwest shore, next to where the docking pier once stood.