The Staten Island Quarantine War was a series of attacks on the New York Marine Hospital in Staten Island—known as “the Quarantine” and at that time the largest quarantine facility in the United States—on September 1 and 2, 1858.
The attacks, perpetrated mainly by residents of Staten Island, which had not yet joined New York City, were a result of longstanding local opposition to several quarantine facilities on the island’s East Shore. During the attacks, arsonists set a large fire that completely destroyed the hospital compound.
At trial, the leaders of the attack successfully argued that they had destroyed the Quarantine in self-defense. Though there were no deaths as a direct result of the attacks, the conflict serves as an important historical case study of the use of quarantines as a first response.
Background
From 1795 to 1798, yellow fever killed thousands in New York City. In reaction, the New York City Common Council passed a quarantine law in 1799 authored by Richard Bayley, the port’s first health officer.[ This act funded the creation of the New York Marine Hospital, and the first patients arrived in 1800. Bayley died from yellow fever while caring for patients there in 1801. The Quarantine had capacity to house 1,500 patients. At its peak in the 1840s, the Quarantine treated more than 8,000 patients each year.
By the 1850s a rigorous inspection system was in place. Newly arrived ships were boarded, and if any signs of disease were found, all passengers were unloaded at the Quarantine. Health officials housed first-class passengers in St. Nicholas Hospital while passengers from steerage were put in the shanties.
The Quarantine was on a large site in the former town of Castleton, overlooking Upper New York Bay near the border of today’s St. George and Tompkinsville. The site is now occupied by the Staten Island Coast Guard Station and the National Lighthouse Museum The Quarantine comprised over a dozen buildings: Map of the Marine Hospital grounds St. Nicholas Hospital, the most-prominent structure on the site; the Smallpox Hospital, with six wards; the Female Hospital, a two-story structure; grounds buildings containing offices, harbor inspectors, and physicians’ residences; eight wooden shanties for housing patients. A six-foot-high brick wall enclosed the grounds.
The Quarantine Hospital, 1858 Opposition to the Quarantine by local residents began from its creation. In this sense, “the quarantine war” could be understood as a decades-long campaign by Staten Islanders against the facility. Land owners opposed the acquisition of the site by the city but also complained about the effects of the Quarantine on property values. “I have thought the existence of the Quarantine very injurious,” explained one land developer in 1849, “to the rise and sale of property “
Staten Islanders blamed local infectious outbreaks on the presence of the Quarantine. In addition, tensions between employees of the Quarantine and local residents grew throughout the 1850s. Attempt to establish a new quarantine facility at Seguine Point In 1857 New York City officials attempted to defuse local anger by moving the facility to a more remote location on Staten Island, Seguine Point.
However, arsonists from the town of Westfield destroyed the construction site before the new facility could be finished.[One participant in that attack wrote an anonymous letter to The New York Times, signed as “An Oysterman”, warning of further action if construction resumed: “Yes, I may say that every urchin who can rub a match will aid in producing a general conflagration of materials that shall be sent there for the purpose of erecting an institution which will endanger their lives and destroy their homes.”[
Another writer to The New York Times declared that the populace would resist the establishment of a quarantine hospital at Seguine Point even if it cost “thousands of lives”. In April 1858, arsonists destroyed the remaining buildings at Seguine Point. A combined reward of $3,000 (equivalent to $89,000 in 2019) from New York State and City officials for information about the perpetrators resulted in only one arrest.[
By George Hayward (c) NYPL Digital Collections
Resolutions of the Castleton Board of Health
In 1856 the Castleton Board of Health (located on Staten Island and sympathetic to its residents) passed an ordinance that prohibited anyone from passing from the grounds of the Quarantine into the town. From 1856 through 1858, local residents sporadically erected barricades to prevent access to the Quarantine.[
Yellow fever returned to Staten Island in August 1858. Locals were quick to blame the outbreak on workers from the Quarantine. In August 1858 the Castleton Board of Health passed ordinances encouraging local residents to take action against the Quarantine. When New York City officials sought an injunction against the Castleton Board of Health, locals responded by threatening to burn down the Quarantine. In retaliation, the City shut down the Staten Island Ferry, ostensibly on health grounds. At this point, locals began to stockpile hay and other flammable materials
On September 1, 1858, the Castleton Board of Health passed the following resolution: “[The Quarantine is] a pest and a nuisance of the most odious character, bringing death and desolation to the very doors of the people….Resolved: That this board recommend the citizens of this county to protect themselves by abating this abominable nuisance without delay.”
Attacks of September 1 and 2
Attack on the Quarantine Establishment, September 1, 1858 Attack on the Quarantine Establishment, September 1, 1858 Locals acted quickly following the passage of the Castleton Board of Health resolution. At dark, two large groups assaulted the Quarantine: one broke down the gate, the other scaled the wall on the opposite side of the compound. The attackers removed patients from buildings and then systematically used mattresses and hay to set every building on fire.]
The New York Times reported that the conflagration illuminated the bay and the entire east side of Staten Island. Efforts by employees or firemen to combat the blazes were met by violence; one stevedore was shot.[One of the leaders of the attackers, Ray Tompkins (a grandson of former Governor Daniel D. Tompkins) convinced the crowd to spare the medical staff from physical violence. In addition, Tompkins struck a deal with Quarantine staff to leave the Female Hospital standing in exchange for the release of attackers who had earlier been apprehended by Quarantine officials.
The attackers also battered down large sections of the wall surrounding the Quarantine.Two men died in the night, one from yellow fever, and one Quarantine staff member who was murdered by a co-worker. New York City officials were slow to react both because of the health risk posed by sending police officers into a quarantine zone and the likelihood of violence. The following day a handbill appeared posted throughout Tompkinsville.
The handbill read: A meeting of the Citizens of Richmond County, will be held at Nautilus Hall, Tompkinsville, this evening, September 2 at 7 1-2 o’clock , for the purpose of making arrangments to celebrate the burning of the shanties and hospitals at the Quarantine ground last evening, and to transact such business as may come before the meeting. September 2nd, 1858. Several hundred individuals attended the meeting and then proceeded to the Quarantine. The crowd burned down the Female Hospital and the piers.Government response, aftermath, and trial One hundred police officers sent by New York City arrived on September 3. They were heavily armed and even possessed an artillery piece.
The police and hospital staff moved several dozen patients who had been sheltering under makeshift tarps to Ward Island. In addition, Governor John A. King dispatched military units to Tompkinsville.[16] These forces initially consisted of several regiments of New York State militia from the 71st New York Infantry and the 7th New York Militia. The police arrested several leaders of the attack, including Ray Tompkins, on September 4.[18] At trial, the defendants argued that they had destroyed the Quarantine in self-defense. The presiding judge agreed. He noted that patients had been removed and that the local health board had previously identified the facility as a danger to the community. “For these reasons,” he concluded, “I am of opinion that no crime has been committed, that the act, the necessity of which all must deplore, was yet a necessity not caused by any act or omission of those upon whom it was imposed, and that his summary act of self-protection, justified by that necessity and therefore by law, was resorted to only after every other proper resource was exhausted.”
The historian of the conflict Kathryn Stephenson notes that the judge owned property within a mile of the Quarantine and had asked the state legislature in 1849 to remove it from Staten Island. The military occupation of Staten Island ended in early January 1859, when the new Governor of New York, Edwin D. Morgan, cancelled the orders of four companies of the 7th New York Militia which had been sent as a relief force for units that were departing Staten Island.
[Quarantine facilities were not re-established on the site. Instead, a floating hospital was used beginning in 1859. Two artificial islands, Swinburne Island and Hoffman Island, began operation as quarantine facilities in the 1860s.[
When I had decided to do this article I had heard of the unwelcome behavior of Staten Islanders to the facility. Reading about is is shocking. Tomorrow I will travel (by internet) to Governor’s Island. I do not know what I will find
I may add Ellis Island Coney Island and who knows what other islands in the future. Okay, I should add Bermuda, St. Thomas and Martinique!!! (I will resist Devil’s Island, since I do not speak French).
This is issue #40 and there are still more subjects to cover. That does not mean I want this quarantine to go on too long!!
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Dottie Jeffries
Blackwell’s Island, Ward’s Island and Randall’s Island (from south to north)
Native Americans called Wards Island Tenkenas which translated to “Wild Lands” or “uninhabited place”whereas Randalls Island was called Minnehanonck. The islands were acquired by Wouter Van Twiller, Director General of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, in July 1637. The island’s first European names were Great Barent Island (Wards) and Little Barent Island (Randalls) after a Danish cowherd named Barent Jansen Blom.[9] Both islands’ names changed several times. At times Randalls was known as “Buchanan’s Island” and “Great Barn Island”, both of which were likely corruptions of Great Barent Island.
Captain John Montresor, an engineer with the British army, purchased Randalls Island in 1772. He renamed it Montresor’s Island and lived on it with his wife until the Revolutionary War forced him to deploy. During the Revolutionary War, both islands hosted military posts for the British military. The British used his island to launch amphibious attacks on Manhattan, and Montresor’s house there was burned in 1777.
He resigned his commission and returned to England in 1778, but retained ownership of the island until the British evacuated the city in 1783 and it was confiscated. Both islands gained their current names from new owners after the war. In November 1784, Jonathan Randell (or Randel) bought Randalls Island, while Jaspar Ward and Bartholomew Ward, sons of judge Stephen Ward, bought Wards. Nineteenth century The New York House of Refuge youth detention center in 1855. Although a small population had lived on Wards since as early as the 17th century, the Ward brothers developed the island more heavily by building a cotton mill and in 1807 building the first bridge to cross the East River.
The wooden drawbridge connected the island with Manhattan at 114th Street, and was paid for by Bartholomew Ward and Philip Milledolar. The bridge lasted until 1821, when it was destroyed in a storm. After the destruction of the bridge, Wards island was largely abandoned until 1840. Jonathan Randel’s heirs sold Randalls to the city in 1835 for $60,000. In the mid-19th century, both Randalls and Wards Islands, like nearby Blackwell’s Island, became home to a variety of social facilities.
Randalls housed an orphanage, poor house, burial ground for the poor, “idiot” asylum, homeopathic hospital and rest home for Civil War veterans, and was also site of the New York House of Refuge, a reform school completed in 1854 for juvenile delinquents or juveniles adjudicated as vagrants. Between 1840 and 1930, Wards island was used for: Burial of hundreds of thousands of bodies relocated from the Madison Square and Bryant Park graveyards
The State Emigrant Refuge, a hospital for sick and destitute immigrants, opened in 1847, the biggest hospital complex in the world during the 1850s The New York City Asylum for the Insane, opened around 1863 Manhattan Psychiatric Center (incorporating the Asylum for the Insane), operated by New York State when it took over the immigration and asylum buildings in 1899. With 4,400 patients, it was the largest psychiatric institution in the world. The 1920 census notes that the hospital had a total of 6,045 patients. It later became the Manhattan Psychiatric Center.
(c) Wikipedia
Little Hell Gate between Islands
Little Hell Gate
Looking east from the footbridge at the mouth of the waterway toward the Triborough Bridge viaduct, 2008 Little Hell Gate was originally a natural waterway separating Randalls Island and Wards Island. The east end of Little Hell Gate opened into the Hell Gate passage of the East River, opposite Astoria, Queens. The west end of Little Hell Gate met the Harlem River across from East 116th Street, Manhattan.
At the Hell Gate Bridge, Little Hell Gate was over 1000 feet (300 m) wide. Currents were swift.
After the Triborough Bridge opened in 1936, it spurred the conversion of both islands to parkland. Soon thereafter, the city began filling in most of the passage between the two islands, in order to expand and connect the two parks. The inlet was filled in by the 1960s.
What is now called “Little Hell Gate Inlet” is the western end of what used to be Little Hell Gate, however, few traces of the eastern end of Little Hell Gate still remain: an indentation in the shoreline on the East River side indicates the former east entrance to that waterway. Today, parkland and part of the New York City Fire Department Academy (see below) occupy that area.
(c) Wikipedia
“Exterior View of the New Inebriate Asylum, Ward’s Island” Image Source: National Library of Medicine
In the late nineteenth century the belief that alcoholism could be cured by confinement led to the establishment of inebriate asylums. In 1864 judges were granted the power to commit alcoholics to asylums.
In the Textbook of Temperance (1869), Lees proclaims, “At last physiologists and statesmen have begun to acknowledge that the drinker’s appetite is a true mania and must be treated as such. Hence the establishment of ‘Inebriate Asylums’ in various parts of the States.” The Asylum on Ward’s Island was opened in 1868 by the Commissioners of Public Charities and Correction, becoming the third in New York State. In New York and its Institutions, 1609-1871 (1872), Richmond chronicles its opening,
“On the 21st of July 1868 the Asylum was formally opened to the public with appropriate services and on the 31st of December the resident physician reported 339 admissions. During 1869 1,490 were received and during 1870 1,270 more were admitted.” While most patients were transferred from the Workhouse, there were also three classes of paying patients, with voluntary attendance of some.
However, the Commissioners and the Attending Physician of the Inebriate Asylum came to agree with prevailing expert opinion that stricter confinement was necessary. Richmond explains, “The rules of the Institution were at first exceedingly mild. The patients were relieved from all irksome restraints, paroles very liberally granted and every inmate supposed intent on reformation. But this excessive kindness was subject to such continual abuse that to save the Institution from utter demoralization a stricter discipline was very properly introduced
As forcible detention came to lose favor as a means of treating alcoholism, the Inebriate Asylum closed in 1875. The buil.” ding temporarily housed the overflow of patients from the Insane Asylum, also located on Ward’s Island, before becoming the Homeopathic Hospital the same year.
The Homeopathic Hospital was renamed Metropolitan Hospital in 1894 when it moved to Blackwell’s Island, marking the beginning of Metropolitan’s affiliation with New York Homeopathic Medical College (now New York Medical College). 5
The underside of the Triboro Bridge photographed by Berenice Abbott, 1937 (c)
EDITORIAL
I could not include all the material in today’s edition. The history that I discovered would only touch the tip of the institutional histories here. The best published source we have is Frederick Dearborn’s book “The Metropolitan Hospital: Chronicle of Sixty-two Years. Dearborn was a physician collector and wrote of the good, bad and adventures of the Homeopathic Hospital on Ward’s Island from 1875 to 1895 and after the hospital moved to Blackwell’s Island in 1895. He led the medical team that went to Mars Sur Alliers in France during World War I representing Metropolitan Hospital. This book is of great value for researchers. It includes the names of Physicians Alumni and even the nursing school graduates until the year 1936. I have often used this book to see if I can locate a graduate. These two islands have a long and complicated history of institutional uses and buildings being used by multiple hospitals, asylums, orphanage and other facilities. I must say that the history of most of these was bleak and miserable for the patients, inmates or others confined here. Judith Berdy 212-688-4836 917-744-3721 jbird134@aol.com
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Dottie Jeffries
The best way to see North Brother Island is taking the Bronx Bound NYCFerry which passes as close by the island you can get.
INTRODUCTION
Both North Brother Island and South Brother Island were claimed by the Dutch West India Company in 1614 and were originally named “De Gesellen”, translated as “the companions” in English.
The islands were both originally part of Queens County. On June 8, 1881, North Brother Island was transferred to what was then part of New York County (later to become the Bronx). On April 16, 1964, South Brother Island was also transferred to the Bronx.
The islands had been incorporated into Long Island City in 1870, before the consolidation of New York City in 1898. North Brother Island The northern of the islands was uninhabited until 1885, when Riverside Hospital moved there from Blackwell’s Island (now known as Roosevelt Island). Riverside Hospital was founded in the 1850s as the Smallpox Hospital to treat and isolate victims of that disease. Its mission eventually expanded to other quarantinable diseases.
The last such facility to be established on the island was the Tuberculosis Pavilion, which opened in 1943. The Pavilion was rendered obsolete within the decade due to the increasing availability, acceptance, and use of the tuberculosis vaccine after 1945.
The island was the site of the wreck of the General Slocum, a steamship that burned on June 15, 1904. Over 1,000 people died either from the fire onboard the ship, or from drowning before the ship beached on the island’s shores.
According to Joseph Mitchell, a reporter for newspapers and for The New Yorker, the island was the site of many outings of “The Honorable John McSorley Pickle, Beefsteak, Baseball Nine, and Chowder Club” organized by John McSorley of McSorley’s Old Ale House; photos of the outings are featured on the walls of the bar.
Mary Mallon, also known as Typhoid Mary, was confined to the island for over two decades until she died there in 1938. The hospital closed shortly thereafter. Following World War II, the island housed war veterans who were students at local colleges and their families. After the nationwide housing shortage abated, the island was again abandoned until the 1950s, when a center opened to treat adolescent drug addicts.
The facility claimed it was the first to offer treatment, rehabilitation, and education facilities to young drug offenders. Heroin addicts were confined to this facility and locked in a room until they were clean. Many of them believed they were being held against their will. Staff corruption and cost forced the facility to close in 1963. The facility is said to have been the inspiration for the Broadway play Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?, which helped to launch the career of Al Pacino.
Since the mid-1960s, New York City mayors have considered a variety of uses for the island. John Lindsay, for instance, proposed to sell it, and Ed Koch thought it could be converted into housing for the homeless. The city also considered using it as an extension of the jail at Rikers Island.
Now serving as a sanctuary for herons and other wading shorebirds, the island is presently abandoned and off-limits to the public. Most of the original hospitals’ buildings still stand, but are heavily deteriorated and in danger of collapse, and a dense forest conceals the ruined hospital buildings. Wikipedia(c)
Aerial View of island with lighthouse in forefront and buildings of Riverside Hospital to the left
Neat and tidy view from above. Only 20 acres of land, 1/7th the size of Blackwell’s Island
Closeup of Hospital Buddings..Riverside Hospital was originally housed in our former Smallpox Hospital
The lighthouse at the southern tip is no longer visible from the river.
Passengers boarding the General Slocum. Carrying over 1,000 mostly women and children, it caught fire at Hell Gate, north or Blackwell’s Island and finally ran aground on North Brother Island. The island is off the coast of 135 Street in the Bronx. The patients and staff worked to rescue passengers while many died and their remains were brought to the island. It was the worst single day tragedy until 9/11.
Part of the boat lying near North Brother Island.
Many walked away with minor sentences the story of the General Slocum was lost to history for many years. The passengers were working class women and children from the Lower East Side German immigrant community.
Due to extensive and persistent tracing by a public health physician Mary Mallon was confined to North Brother Island in Quarantine twice. After being discharged the first time she went back to cooking an infecting others. This time she was sent to the Island permanently.
Mary Mallon’s cottage on North Brother Island.
Rendering of the Tuberculosis Hospital which was designed by Isadore Rosenfield, the architect of Goldwater Hospital on Welfare Island.
Rounded design to deflect germs and large open rooms were common beliefs in the treatment of Tuberculosis.
Parts of the building are still visible in winter
Probably a great nesting place for the wild birds that are now protected residents of the island.
JACOB A. RIIS VISITED NORTH BROTHER ISLAND IN 1892. THIS IS HIS REPORT FROM AN ISLAND OF QUARANTINE FOR COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE
The Storehouse was located where the lawn is by the Tram Station
When I chose to write about North Brother Island I remembered that I had copy of an article from Cosmopolitan Magazine about the island. No, not the current Cosmo, but a literary journal of 1892. On-line I found this reprint of it from a university library via Google.
The story by the famous photographer Jacob Riis is a tender recounting of those who are taken to this island for care and treatment.
Most survive and leave the island, treated by staff who live there their entire careers.
I got a e-mail the the other day from Guy Ludwig, who is encamped in the wilds of Vermont for the duration. He tells of his early visit sneaking onto the not yet completed island.
It is a dreary day and even Beano the cat has no interest in stirring.
I got an artwork from my friend Henry yesterday for my birthday.
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
This weekend we are treating you to a special book on Roosevelt Island and its history. Written by Mandy Choi, who worked in the Admissions Office at Cornell Tech, it is a lighthearted look at the history and characters of the island!
Please respect the Copyright of this publication (c) Mandy Choi 2018 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
These are items that we sell in the kiosk by artist Julia Gash.(c) Contact us to purchase any of them.
We were introduced to Julia Gash and her wonderful art last year. Based in London, she designs artwork for dozens of cities worldwide. We love her Roosevelt Island designs on mugs, tee shirts, totes, towels and aprons.
EDITORIAL
One of the pages in this booklet is entitled Rx Prescription Come to Blackwell’s island! We treat ’em all;
Never did I expect to add a 21st century pandemic chapter to our history books.
It is supposed to be sunny tomorrow, time to enjoy the cherry trees before the ground is carpeted in pink petals that float thru the air.
Maybe the clutter around my desk will flutter away into the right files!
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
************************************************************************ IF YOU MISS AN ISSUE GO TO WWW.RIHS.US FOR A COMPLETE COLLECTION OF ALL OUR ISSUES.
Our Neighbors Over the Bridge
Long Island City to Astoria
A History Walk
Along Vernon Blvd and Neighboring Streets
This is a light look at the interesting structures and sites along Vernon Blvd and the neighborhood opposite the island. It is not meant to be a thorough guide book. I suggest checking on-line at The AIA Guide to New York City, NYC Parks Department, NYPL Digital Images, Friends of Terra Cotta, Google Images, Wikipedia and Google. Please respect the (c) copyrights of these publications.
In years past Silvercup was a bread bakery. As you passed over the Queensboro Bridge the aroma of freshly baked bread wafted in the air.
Ancient Glacier Rock 43-30 12th Street,LIC A surprise planted between to buildings. The rock has a bright blue “water’ art-piece surrounding it. (c) Judith Berdy RIHS
Look up and admire the superstructure of the bridge.
As you walk past the Queenboro Bridge support at Vernon Blvd. see the pedestrian entrance that was the elevator entry. There is also a set of elevator entries at 60th Street and First Avenue. (Sorry, the elevators were removed decades ago).
Letterhead from the 19th century
Image showing 1930’s oil depot next to Terra Cotta works. (c) RIHS Archives
Restoration was recently completed on this landmark building that was the office for the Terra Cotta works that was on the site overlooking the river. The waterfront site was recently cleaned of pollutants and the future of the waterside area has not been revealed. A great view of the site is from the NYCFerry.
The view look familiar? A most popular site for films, TV shows and advertisements. Last summer it was the site of a carnival for the Big Red Dog Movie. Four baseball diamonds are awaiting the summer season! And a beautiful restored sea wall.
No, it’s not the Adams Family home. This was the famous granite castle built by John Bodine (1818-1887), a wealthy wholesale grocer. It was built in 1853, only 200 feet from the East River. Bodine ran for mayor of Long Island City — unsuccessfully — in 1876, but was made one of the first trustees of the Long Island City Savings Bank.
After the death of his wife in 1879 he lost interest in the home and rented it to Harold Larsen of the Long Island Paint Works. After Bodine’s death his son sold it to Young and Metzer’s paper bag company in 1893. Early in the 20th century it was bought by William Youngs and Brothers, who turned the property into a lumberyard and mill, using the house for offices. William Youngs (1892-1978) had a successful lumber operation as LIC was growing into an industrial city. Youngs never lived in LIC.
By the 1950s when the building boom ended he merged with another lumberyard and the firm became stronger as the Youngs-Esdorn Lumber Co. By 1962, an expanding Con Edison made him an offer he could not refuse.
In 1966 the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which usually doesn’t save anything outside Manhattan, sided with Con Edison that the castle was not valuable for landmark status. It was quietly demolished on May 11, 1966 without media attention or protests. Today the site is part of a high-tension switching station.
Original firehouse on Vernon Blvd. Note barn doors and horse drawn equipment.
Firehouse today has not sign of its previous life. Barn door has been replaced by roll-down gate. Judith Berdy IRHS (c)
Current home of fire house around the corner on 37 Avenue,
Photographed in 1937 House was located on 27th Avenue From Changing New York by Berenice Abbott: “This Astoria House was built circa 1850 for Josiah Blackwell a New York Dry goods merchant and descendant of Robert Blackwell who settled Blackwell’s Island.(now Roosevelt Island) in the seventeenth century. The house remained in the Blackwell family until 1921, when it was sold and converted to a boarding house with the addition of a fire escape. The young couple relaxes in beach chairs presents a distinctly modern rendition of bucolic contentment. Today the site is occupied by six story apartment building , adjacent to the much larger Astoria Houses , a public housing project built between 1944 and 1951.” (c) Berenice Abbott
Astoria Branch located at 14-10 Astoria Blvd. (c0 NYPL
Originally the Sohmer Piano Factory, then a corporate furniture company and now a condo.
Can you tell me what time it is? The building in the background wins my LOSER award.
Located at 9-01 33rd Road. A tranquil oasis with the sculpture and art of Isamu Noguchi.
Adjoining Socrates Sculpture Park the studio of artist Mark Di Scuvero. (Not open to public)
Socrates Sculpture Park holds wonderful events on this site overlooking our lighthouse.
Welling Court Mural Project on walls in the neighborhood. Get there fast before the Walls disappear and condos rise. Just across the street from Astoria NYCFerry dock
NYCFerry Dock at the Astoria Houses.
A War of 1812 coastal fort established in 1814 at Hallett’s Point, Queens County, New York. Named Fort Stevens after General Ebenezer Stevens. Abandoned as a fortification at the end of the war in 1815. Fort Stevens and the Mill Rock Blockhouse History of Fort Stevens Established in 1814 during the War of 1812 at Hallett’s Point guarding Hell Gate and the channels of the East River. Fort Stevens was an extensive work with stone walls enclosing a battery with 12 pieces of heavy artillery and a barracks.
This fortification was at the waters edge and vulnerable to landing parties. The fort was protected from the rear by a large stone tower known as Halletts Point Tower on Lawrence Hill commanding a wide section of land and water. The drawing above was probably as viewed from that tower. On the water side, in front of Fort Stevens, was a very strong blockhouse and battery on Mill Rock (a small island in front of the fort).
Other fortifications ringed this stretch of water, a fort at Horn’s Hook and redoubts at Rhinelander Point and the mouth of Harlem Creek. Some of these locations were also fortified during the Revolutionary War. This fortification was one of a line running diagonally across the northern end of Manhattan Island from Fort Laight in the north to the Halletts Point Tower in the south. Included in the line from north to south were Fort Laight, NYC Blockhouse No. 3, NYC Blockhouse No. 2, NYC Blockhouse No. 1, Fort Fish, Fort Clinton (4), Mill Rock Fort, Fort Stevens (5) and the Halletts Point Tower.
These fortifications were located on line of bluffs in the north that overlooked the landside approaches and the major roads into New York City. The southern end of the line guarded McGowans Pass along the Old Post Road and the back door water approach to New York City via a treacherous stretch of water known as Hell Gate. New York City Fortifications 1814 (click twice for full resolution) In addition to these major fortifications, a number of gun batteries and smaller redoubts were located at strategic points to reinforce and protect specific areas. Often these fortifications were connected by earth works and trenches.
and in the distance the Blackwell’s Island Light. Hope you enjoyed your walk thru the neighborhood.
EDITORIAL
Yesterday, it was Manhattan, today it is Queens. It is easy to look out my window at the power plant. Queensbridge Park and the bridge. When I moved to this apartment in 2005 all that there was to see was the Citicorp building. Now, I only see half of it. Seems some other building just rose in front of it overnight.
Queens was farmland until the bridge opened in 1909. When it opened farmers would bring their produce and foods to a giant market under the bridge. There were fresh food markets under most of our bridges in the early 20th century.
Vernon Blvd. was the capital of stone-cutting. I assume that ships carrying stone could dock alongside the plants. There are still stone and marble cutting operations along the boulevard. For a while in the 1980’s there was a stone cutting company that was cutting granite for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. I remember visiting the plant and watching giant diamond stone wheel slowly working its way thru the stone. The operation is gone. They gave up on “finishing” the cathedral.
I did not write about other sites along Vernon Blvd. If you have a question, e-mail me.
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
When I moved onto the island in 1977, the laundry was closed, the garage closed and only the firehouse was being used by the FDNY Mask Unit. This is a unit that would deploy canisters of supplemental air to firefighters on scene. Eventually, the Mask Unit left and it became the home of the tram office.
I always admired the building with the blue glass and the tower. It turns out the tower was for drying fire hoses. There was a terrace on the second floor overlooking the rivers.
I wondered why not entrepreneur came and made a destination restaurant there, with its light architecture and tinted blue windows. The window diffused the sunlight and gave a blue glow inside. The low slung look reminded me of mid-century and Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.
I photographed the cornerstone and wanted to see the interior. In the true spirit of the island I asked some teen age friends to show me around. It was pretty empty when I was upstairs, the laundry machinery gone. There were holes in the floors where the laundry chutes had been.
One one floor the walls were spray painted. It took many years to put together the story of Arthur Tress and his constructions from hospital furniture was what I was looking at.
A few years later I bought on E-bay the ceremonial trowel used to place the cornerstone and somewhere I located an invitation to cornerstone laying.
From the article in Wikipedia and books on Percival Goodman, I did not find any reference to this project. He did one more project on Welfare Island. It was to build over the island and call it Terrace Island. He is known for the modernist synagogues he designed in suburbs after World War II
The plans for Terrace Island and the laundry are at Avery Library at Columbia University.
Judith Berdy
On October 14th, 1948 Chrisman Schiff, Medical Superintendent of Goldwater Memorial Hospital delivered a speech at the dedication of the Laundry, Garage and Firehouse on Welfare Island.
At that time the Island had many institutions including: Goldwater Hospital 1500 beds Metropolitan Hospital 1100 beds City Hospital 800 beds City Home 1850 beds Cancer Institute 219 beds Central Nurses Residence 555 beds
Below is the text of his speech:
Scale model of building
Illustrations from Progressive Architecture (c)
ABANDONMENT
EDITORIAL A month of being patient, going out occasionally and doing my errands has just past. An occasional trip on a sunny day to Cornell Tech for a cup of Bloomberg Cafe coffee sit outside and admire the red bud tares.
I feel for our neighbors at Coler most of whom live in units on lock down. It sounds like eternal confinement, and many feel that way. It is difficult to be at home for such a long period but being left alone living in a 4 bedded room and worrying if you hear a cough that person may have Covid.
In order to cheer the residents and make their days better please send artwork, cards, posters, pictures of rainbows, to cheer the residents. Coler is a nursing home and you know many of the residents that you see on the island, on the bus, shopping, dining out. That is not happening now.
I am the president of the COLER AUXILIARY, a charitable organization that supports the needs of the residents. We pay for Holiday parties, entertainments, holiday gifts, clothing, special meals and all sorts of things that the hospital cannot provide. Our goal is to make life at Coler more homelike and as comfortable as possible. Your donations will bring more activities into the building and more things that can make the days go faster.
Any donation is greatly appreciated. Please make checks payable to Coler Auxiliary, 900 Main St., NY 10044. We will be glad to discuss any donation you are considering.
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Dottie Jeffries
Included in this Issue: The Schetlin Story Conclusion Part VI •
A Recollection of Family Life on Balckwell’s/ Welfare Island Eleanor Schetlin 2002 PART VI •
The Florence Nightingale Pledge •
Eleanor Schetlin at the Central Nurses Residence 1956-1963 •
Eleanor, The Last Schetlin on the Island, Leaves the Island •
Eleanor and the Roosevelt Island Historical Society •
Background Report
Draper Hall was accessible from the street or from the Lighthouse Park on the northern tip of the island
The orientation guide for student nurses. (Text available upon request)
Leisure time at the lighthouse
Artists rendering of CNR facing north.
Rear of nurses residence with fencing for tennis courts
Tennis courts that later became our second community gardens.
View of CNR and central laundry building in foreground
View looking north from Storehouse Elevator building
View from terrace at CNR with Chapel of the Afflicted in the distance.
Cement Batching Plant at East River Drive at 61 to 62 Street
Eleanor and Judy at the time of her presentation at the RIHS in 2000.
Reading Eleanor’s story for the first time in years reminds me of the importance of paper archives and photographs. There is something about looking thru notebooks, binders, scrapbooks that brings the story to life. Eleanor visited our island again in 2006. We held a reunion at the newly opened Octagon apartments. Bruce Becker, the developer was a wonderful host to the women who studied and worked in the building. I have photos of that event but they are in the RIHS office in the Octagon.
I hope you have enjoyed this series. Please send me your comments.
This list is only published books. Our archives have over 200 binders of individual subjects from Almshouses to Zoolander. Feel free to contact us for any information you need. If we don’t have it, we can point you in the right direction to find it.
Judith Berdy
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Dottie Jeffries
The Schetlins at Metropolitan Hospital 1921-1943 • “City in Itself” • Traveling by Ferry • The Schetlins return to the City Home Grounds 1943-1950 • The FDNY on Blackwell’s / Welfare Island From Blackwell’s Almanac FDNY Archives
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The Schetlins at Metropolitan Hospital 1921-1943
ABOVE: The Met with its’ tennis courts and areas for outdoor activities.
Building where Henry Schetlin worked at Metropolitan Hospital
This may be the staff house where the Schetlins lived while Henry worked at the Met.
The Lighthouse in the 1950’s
Draper Hall where the Metropolitan Hospital School of Nursing students lived and studied
Draper Hall
View of Cottage Row from Central Nurses Residence
The new Goldwater in the 1940’s.
THE FDNY ON WELFARE ISLAND
From Our November, 2018 Edition by Anne Cripps
Additional Images of the FDNY Training Center Enjoy the Visions of Training in the 1960’s
Editorial
Judith Berdy
We have been thanking doctors and nurses for the last month. It is now time to thank every person who had worked thru this pandemic in a hospital or nursing home. These facilities only work with team spirit.
We start with the person who risked their health to bring you to the hospital, the porter there to clean the lobby, the hospital police to guide you, the admissions clerk to admit you, the transport person to take you to your room, the aide to help you, the nurse/PA/LPN to treat you, the kitchen staff to feed you, the engineer to warm or cool your room, the maintenance crew to remove hazardous materials, the lab person to take specimens, the social worker to guide you, the aide who makes you comfortable numerous times a day, the specialists to diagnose you, the therapist to move your body, the pharmacist to prepare your medications, the nice lady who brings you magazines, the cashier who sends your bill to insurance, the nurses who cheer as you leave and the ambulance staff that takes you home!
In our world of minimal medicine and ambulatory everything, we have forgotten what health care really is . It is CARE from every person.
All images used in FROM TH ARCHIVES are from the collection of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society. Please respect copyrights (c) and request permission for reproduction. We will advise original sources where available.
Thanks to all our neighbors who gave donations to feed the staff at Coler. Nisi has sent many meals for the staff with these funds. The last two funded lunhes will go to the staff this weekend.. Starting next week WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN will be providing 3 meals a day for all staffs at all municipal hospitals and nursing homes. (Municipal hospitals are Bellevue, Kings County, Elmhurst, Queens, Woodhull,Metropolitan and more. Coler is a municipal nursing home). Thanks Bloomberg Philanthropies for funding these meals.
THE SCHETLIN STORY CONTINUES, PART IV
When Eleanor was a child this was the ambulances used.
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, APRIL 18-19, 2020
29th in our FROM THE ARCHIVES series.
A RECOLLECTION OF FAMILY LIFE ON BLACKWELL’S / WELFARE ISLAND ELEANOR SCHETLIN 2002 PART IV
Mr. Adams, The City Home Watchman
The House on Blackwell’s Island – 1939
Mysterious Mansions
Cottage Row in back of the quarry. Can you spot the watchman’s shack on the bottom photo?
The lighthouse with its original top
The quarry after it was closed and covered over
The neat and tidy appearance of the penitentiary
The title page and illustration
Inside the cover of MYSTERIOUS MANSIONS showing City Hospital in the distance with the Penitentiary in the foreground
Inside the cover of MYSTERIOUS MANSIONS showing covered over quarry in foreground and Cottage Row in the distance.
Please note that the author of Mysterious Mansions was the daughter of the island storekeeper that hired Eleanor’s father.
EDITORIAL
How did this epic start. Every issue is about 4 hours work. It is fun and goes fast. Tearing the apartment apart today, I found a photo of my mom in her WWII Civil Defense uniform.
Stories, memories, recollections seem to be a great way to escape the realities of our new life style. Some watch movies, some read books, some are in a fog. I get into these publications, dig out folders, files, photos and related items. (Trashy TV shows are on in the background, my favorite is “Parking Wars”).
I am lucky to sit at my desk watching the trees turn green in Queensbridge Park and the Silvercup sign in Queens. The sun will come out tomorrow!
A teaser for Monday, we move north to Metropolitan Hospital.
Next week we start a two parter on the FDNY on the Island.
Ruth Berdy, my mother, a Civil Defense Volunteer during World War II
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Dottie Jeffries
Are you bored? Do your kids need projects? Are you running out of ideas?
The RIHS Visitor Center has Empire State, Chrysler Building and Statue of Liberty 3D puzzles. They are brand new, in sealed packages. Small models $8- Large models $15- E-mail us and we will arrange pickup rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com
EDITORIAL
Exhaustion seems to be setting in. I need a haircut. I need to loose weight. I need to get off this island.
I need to stop complaining. I have a comfy apartment, a cat that sleeps 22 hours a day, some money in the bank and wonderful neighbors.
Baby Oona is down the hall. She giggles at all things a one year old learns so fast. It is a new time for working mothers. Our young moms are discovering mommy-hood and watching your child grow up in front of you without babysitters, nannies or others. It is a tough job and I sympathize with them.
My mom stayed home with my much older (3years) brother and me. I am sure I was perfect. All I wanted to do was wear dresses and petticoats. It was suburbia 1950’s. Dad went to work, mom stayed home. We were out of the house all day and ran when the Good Humor truck came by, needing 25 cents for ice cream.
We watched Buffalo Bill and Howdy Doody. TV was black and white and never worked right for more than 10 minutes.
We were happy. Find my dad, brother and me in the photo below.
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Dottie Jeffries
