A Photo Tour Of Beautifully Decaying North Brother Island
24 photos
<a href="http://gothamist.com/tags/northbrotherisland">North Brother Island</a>, located just off shore from the Bronx in the Hell Gate section of the East River, has a fascinating history: It was once home to a quarantine hospital that housed Typhoid Mary; it's where the General Slocum sank and burned in 1904, killing over 1,200 people; after World War II, the island housed war veterans who were students at local colleges; and in the '50s it was home to an experimental drug treatment program that was mired in corruption. <p></p><p>The island has been abandoned for almost half a century now, and the public is prohibited, but the Parks Department still has access too it, and we recently spoke with John Krawchuk, the department's Director of Historic Preservation. Click through on the photos for our conversation with Krawchuk. <br/></p>
<strong>Where did the name come from?</strong> It's really a very special place. I think the North Brother name initially came from an early Dutch name and there's a North Brother and a South Brother, and eventually it transitioned from the Dutch name which I cant recall at the moment. It was translated into English as North and South Brother. <p></p><p><strong>Do you know what it was originally used for?</strong> The earliest known occupation was probably around 1880 or so. It was purchased for residential use. There was a man who had purchased it for construction of a private home and it didn't really last long because its in a fairly remote area of the harbor. It's in the East River between Queens and the Brother, at the headwater of the Hell Gate. </p><p><strong>Hell Gate is pretty treacherous, huh?</strong> They were until they blasted them in the 1800s to allow ships to pass through. It made it a little less treacherous but the waters from Long Island Sound and the East River kind of converge there, which creates a pretty turbulent situation. The island is closest to Riker's Island, which most New Yorkers have the strongest association with and it's technically part of the Bronx. </p>
<strong>So this guy wanted to have a home there and that failed?</strong> The island was sold and there was a lot of violence starting in the 1850s and then they were used for the sick and the insane and incarcerating people. It was used for social isolation. The island ended up converting in 1885, it was purchased by the Riverside Hospital for contagious diseases and they established a hospital for tuberculosis patients on the island. <p></p><p>And they operated it not very long until they sold it. But it was initially founded by the Sisters of Charity who were a Roman Catholic order, whose mandate is to help the sick. They were the ones that initially founded the Riverside Hospital. They managed it til about 1892 and then it passed on and it continued to be used for tuberculosis until the late 1930s and after that it was used as temporary for housing for soldiers coming home from World War II. Finally, in 1952 it became a drug rehabilitation facility.</p><p><strong>What kind of drugs?</strong> You know, I don't know. I don't know a lot about the history of it. I haven't done much research on it. That would probably be a fascinating topic for someone to explore. I can imagine it was probably a pretty horrible place. It would really have to be for any disease, but particularly for drug rehabilitation, it was probably pretty terrifying. It is pretty remote, you can only really get there by boat. And the waters are quite treacherous, so even folks that were kept there for medical reasons, it wasn't like they could just swim away. </p>
<strong>When did the city step in?</strong> New York City took possession of the islandâthe City Parks Departmentâin 2001, when it was mapped as park land. We took possession from the Health and Hospitals Corporation. It had been abandoned. After 1964 it probably had some light use, but by the '70s it was completely abandoned. It became very overgrown and eventually started to re-vegetate, the buildings started to crumble. They weren't heated or operable in any way. A forest took over again of mainly non-native species, and it became a bird habitat. It became a stopping place for herons. <p></p><p>So it was recognized in the 1990s that it should really be preserved for its natural habitat but of course also for its cultural resources that remain. I'm the Director of Historic Preservation. I was appointed in 2002 and that was first thing that I did as director, was to put together a team of preservationists who went out and surveyed the cultural resources. </p><p>We have many divisions at the New York City Parks Department, but another is the Natural Resources Group, they deal with vegetative areas as well as flora and fauna. They do a lot of work restoring natural habitats, so we worked in conjunction with them to look at the island and see how we could really bring together the eco-cultural resources there and protect them and their future interpretation for the public. </p>
<strong>Are there plans to let people come visit it? Like they did Governor's Island?</strong> Not in the immediate future, but certainly in the future that's something we're in discussions with elected officials and other organizations, like Audubon and other preservation organizations. Like how could we openly up safely to the public. Because they are ruins out there, the buildings. And most importantly to ensure that the bird habitats are protected because they are so sensitive to human disturbances. Especially during the nesting season, we wouldn't allow the public out there, only scientists.
<strong>So it's illegal for just anyone to go there?</strong> Presently, the public is not allowed on North Brother Island. It's actually quite dangerous. I was out there last month with a group of foresters from the Parks Department and one of them fell into a manhole. It's basically a city that exists out there. You've got buildings, streets, fire hydrants, lamp posts, anything that you would have needed to operate a little cityâtennis courts. it's gotten very overgrown and you really don't see the roadways any longer and a lot of the manholes have gotten dislodged and when walking through the vegetation there's the potential to fall into one. We have to be very, very cautious. <p></p><p><strong>What happened to this person?</strong> She caught herself by her arms fortunatelyâlost their Blackberry though! But this one someone who had a lot of experience, whenever you're walking you're always being careful, but this was one that caught her by surprise. She wasn't injured, and was able to pull herself out. The island is near Riker's so it's also closely watched by harbor patrol. Any time someone lands, they are paid a visit by harbor patrol, including Parks Department employees who haven't properly notified them. They monitor it because of the proximity to Riker's. There's pretty high security around it and we do not encourage the public to go there. </p>
<strong>Do you imagine this is what Manhattan would look like if there were some sort of post-apocalyptic situation, like in <em>I Am Legend</em>? </strong> [Laughs] That's certainly the vision for a natural resources group. The reason the foresters were there is that they've been doing over a series of years, removing non-native invasive vegetation which doesn't allow a proper tree canopy. They're been removing that and putting back natives.<p></p><p> Does it visually look like that? Yeah, I don't if i would use the term apocalyptic because I think of it as a more romantic landscape. The association I have as a preservationist, I think of English archaeological ruins in the landscape. Something that you might encounter in Europe where they have ruins that date back centuries and they've been stabilized and landscaped. But these aren't landscapedâtrees and brush are growing out of everywhere. We're hoping eventually that one would be able to experience this natural landscape. </p><p>It is one of the few natural islands that still exist, though this one has been added onto, of the many, many island in the harbor. I forget how many are in New York harbor. Parks has about 13 islands that are under our jurisdiction and South Brother is actually one of the only islands that's never been disturbed. Everything else has been reworked to some degree and North Brother, which is about 20 acres, had about four acres added to it in the 1909 when they built some concrete dormitories at the eastern side of the island. </p>
<strong>What other animals are living there?</strong> Your traditional range of New York Wildlife: Rats, raccoons, squirrels, various bird species, but those are the only ones I'm aware of. <p></p><p><strong>Are there structures on South Brother Island too?</strong> No, it's the only island that hasn't been developed. </p>
<strong>How many times have you been there?</strong> I've been there twice. My first visit was in 2003 when we did the initial survey and my follow up was last month. It's hard to get there! [Laughs]<p></p><p><strong>What does it involve?</strong> We have boats and we have two marinas and a dock master. The dock master came over from the World's Fair marina in Flushing Meadows and picked us up in Hunt's Point.</p><p><strong>Sounds exciting.</strong> It's quite a special place. I think it's why the public will one day be able to go over there, but we first have a lot of work to do and it's going to require a lot of money to make it safe to land there. There's no proper place other than a shore landing right now. There's no dock, and that can be hard to time it with the tides. </p><p></p><p>Our hope one day is to really get the public over there so they can also have the great experience of learning about the important history of the island as a contagious diseases hospital and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoid_Mary">Typhoid Mary</a>. She was one of the first asymptomatic carries of typhoid fever that lived on the island. She was first incarcerated there starting in 1907 and was released on the condition that she not cook in people's households. She was a housekeeper and that's how she kept passing it along to people. And then she resumed cooking and so she was incarcerated again in 1915 and she lived out the rest of her life on the island. </p>
<strong>Well I'd definitely like to go there some day, especially if it doesn't involve falling into an open manhole. </strong> Well, on the rare occasion that we bring someone who isn't a Parks Department employee we brief them thoroughly. Poison Ivy is a huge issue there too. I always come back with it. You can't avoid it. It's everywhere<p><strong>Duly noted.</strong> There are a number of buildings out there; I would guess at least 25 structures, that consist of everything from the old hospital from 1939, an art deco building that was the former tuberculosis hospital, to older buildings like the morgue and the boiler house, the male dormitory, those are all 19th century buildings. </p><p></p><p>And then there was an era of development in the '20s when they put in concrete roadways and lamp posts and tennis courts. It's kind of a range of buildings, all abandoned, completely overgrown, some in various stages of collapse and disrepair. It's very interesting, unique. This is why we hope we can round up the money to do some improvements over there and allow the public to visit. </p>