Abandoned in New York
Smack-dab in the East River.
In the 1880s, North Brother Island housed a contagious disease hospital (home to one “Typhoid” Mary Mallon, a cook & source of multiple outbreaks). It was also the scene of the nation’s worst martime disaster: in 1904 more than 1000 German immigrants drowned when the steamship General Slocum sank just offshore of the 29-acre island.
“Today North Brother has largely slipped from public consciousness. It does not, for example, appear on the MTA Subway map: The place where the island would be shows only water.” — The Architect’s Newspaper
After WWII ended, the island housed returning World War II vets who were attending college in the city & in the early 50s it became a treatment facility for teenaged drug addicts before being abandoned entirely in 1964.
Why did they leave?
That’s always what I want to know.
One of my favorite books as a child was “The Secret Garden” and I remain, to this day, curious about & drawn to ruin & disrepair.
photos by Christopher Payne
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