Roosevelt Island
Roosevelt Island is an island in New York City's East River, within the borough of Manhattan. It lies between Manhattan Island to the west, and the borough of Queens, on Long Island, to the east. It is about long, with an area of, and had a population of 11,722 as of the 2020 United States census. It consists of two largely residential communities: Northtown and Southtown. Roosevelt Island is owned by the city but was leased to the New York State Urban Development Corporation for 99 years in 1969.
The island was called Minnehanonck by the Lenape and Varken Eylandt by the Dutch during the colonial era and later Blackwells Island. During much of the 19th and 20th centuries, the island was used by hospitals and prisons, with very limited access. It was renamed Welfare Island in 1921. Following several proposals to redevelop Welfare Island in the 1960s, the UDC leased the island, renamed it after former U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1973, and redeveloped it as a series of residential neighborhoods. The first phase of Northtown, the island's first community, was completed in 1974, followed by the second phase in 1989. Southtown was developed in the early 21st century, along with the Cornell Tech higher-education campus.
In addition to residential towers, the island has several buildings that predate the residential development, including six New York City designated landmarks. The island is accessible by numerous modes of transport, including a bridge, an aerial tram, and the city's subway and ferry systems. Many government services, such as emergency services, are provided from Queens, but the island also has a post office and a pneumatic garbage-disposal system. There are several parks on Roosevelt Island as well, including a promenade around the island's perimeter and Four Freedoms Park at its southern end. In addition to Cornell Tech, the island contains an elementary school. Several houses of worship are located on Roosevelt Island, and numerous community organizations have been founded there.
Geography
Roosevelt Island is located in the middle of the East River, between Manhattan Island to the west and Queens to the east. The island's southern tip faces 47th Street on Manhattan Island, while its northern tip faces 86th Street on Manhattan Island. It is about long, with a maximum width of. The island was prior to the 18th century but has been expanded to. Administratively, it is part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Together with Mill Rock, Roosevelt Island constitutes Manhattan's Census Tract 238, which has a land area of.The island is one of the southernmost locations in New York City where Fordham gneiss, a type of bedrock commonly found beneath the South Bronx, can be seen above ground. The gneiss outcropping was surrounded by dolomite, which was worn down by East River currents, creating the current island. The layer of bedrock is shallow and is covered by glacial till, and a 2012 study found no evidence of ponds or streams on the island. Since the 19th century, the island's natural topography has been modified drastically, and fill has been added to Roosevelt Island to increase its area. An ancient fault line, known as Cameron's Line, runs within the East River between Roosevelt Island and Queens.
Roosevelt Island's street layout is based on a master plan designed in 1969 by the architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee. Main Street runs the length of the island, splitting into a loop around Southtown; it was the island's only road until 1989. The street is paved in red brick. Main Street, along with the island's parks, was intended to be a communal area for the island's various ethnic groups and socioeconomic classes. The island's residences and businesses are largely clustered around Main Street. Roosevelt Island is surrounded by a seawall of Fordham gneiss, quarried from the island itself.
History
Early history
Lenape use
According to archaeological digs, the area around Roosevelt Island was settled by Paleo-Indians up to 12,000 years ago. In particular, the area was the homeland of the Mareckawick, a group of Lenape Native Americans, who called it Minnehanonck. The name is variously translated as "long island" or "It's nice to be on the island". The historian Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes claimed that the Minnehanonck name referred to Randalls Island, but this claim has not been corroborated.The Lenape may have visited the island. Archeological studies have found shell middens just opposite the island, along both the Queens and Manhattan shores, and the Lenape are known to have had settlements around waterways. However, the island likely did not have any Lenape settlements because of the lack of freshwater. There is little evidence of Native American activities on the island from before the Archaic period.
Dutch colonization
There are disputes over who owned the island after the European colonization of New Netherland in the 17th century. According to several sources, Dutch Governor Wouter van Twiller was said to have purchased the island from the Lenape in 1637. A study from 1988 found that Van Twiller's deed referred to what is now Randalls and Wards Islands further north, but a subsequent study said that Van Twiller acquired Randalls, Wards, Roosevelt, and Governors islands simultaneously. In any case, Roosevelt Island was known in early modern Dutch as Varcken, Varken, or Verckens Eylandt, all of which are translated in modern English as Hog Island.By 1639, Jan Claessen Alteras was known to have farmed Hog Island. Reports indicate that Alteras had made improvements to the island by 1642, though the nature of the work is not known. New Netherland director-general Peter Stuyvesant took over the island in 1642. The following year, it was leased to Francois Fyn. Fyn, in turn, leased the island to Laurens Duyts, who developed further structures on the island. Duyts defaulted on his lease in 1658 and was deported for "gross immoralities", and Fyn's lawyer took back the island.
Manning and Blackwell ownership
After the Dutch surrendered to the British in 1664, a British military captain named John Manning acquired the island in 1668. In 1673, Manning surrendered to Dutch forces who had wanted to retake New Netherland; as punishment, he had to live on the island in exile. After Manning's banishment, the isle became known as Manning's Island. Manning had a mansion near the island's southern tip, where he served rum punch to visitors. The island was then conveyed to Manning's stepdaughter Mary in 1676 or 1685. Mary was married to Robert Blackwell, who became the island's new owner and namesake. The Brooklyn Times-Union wrote that the island had gained the Blackwell name "by a mere chance, or the result of a marriage".The Blackwell family settled the island over four generations. At the beginning of the 18th century, Blackwell built his farmhouse, the Blackwell House, on the island. Blackwell's Island was not a major battleground in the American Revolutionary War, though British troops tried to take the island after the 1776 Battle of Long Island. The British briefly seized control on September 2–4, 1776, after which the American troops took over. A British prison inspector proposed using the island as a prison in the early 1780s, but it is not known whether this happened. Blackwell's sons took over the island in 1780 and tried to sell it, at which point Blackwell's Island had several buildings and was several miles removed from New York City. By the mid-1780s, the island included two houses, orchards, a cider mill, and other farm structures. Contemporary sources do not mention any structures on the northern half of the island. A public auction was held in 1785, but no one bought the island. In 1796, Blackwell's great-grandson Jacob Blackwell constructed the Blackwell House, one of Manhattan's oldest houses. James L. Bell paid the Blackwells $30,000 for the island in 1823, but Blackwell took back control two years later, upon Bell's death. One source indicated that Bell never fulfilled the terms of the sale.
Hospital and prison island
By 1826, the city almshouse at Bellevue Hospital was overcrowded, prompting city officials to consider moving that facility to Blackwell's Island. The city government purchased the island for $32,000 on July 19, 1828. Ownership of the island remained unresolved for another 16 years while Bell's widow sued the city. Through the 19th century, the island housed several hospitals and a prison. At one point there were 26 institutions on the island.1830s to 1860s
The city government erected a penitentiary on the island, which opened August 3, 1830. There were proposals to construct a canal to split male and female prisoners; though the canal was not built, an unknown architect did build a separate building for female prisoners. The island's prison population already numbered in the hundreds by 1838, whereas there were only 24 staff members. By 1839, the New York City Lunatic Asylum opened, including the Octagon Tower. The asylum, with two wings made of locally quarried Fordham gneiss, at one point held 1,700 inmates, twice its designed capacity. Prisoners frequently tried to swim away from the island. Almshouses, or housing for the poor, were constructed in 1847. Other hospitals were soon developed on the island, including a 600-bed prison hospital that was finished in 1849. Thomas Story Kirkbride, who oversaw some of the island's hospitals, described the island as having fallen into "degradation and neglect" by 1848.A workhouse was built on the island in 1852, followed by the Smallpox Hospital in 1856. The Asylum burned down in 1858 and was rebuilt on the same site, and the prison hospital was destroyed in the same fire. Two pipes provided fresh water from the Croton Aqueduct to the island by 1860, and maps indicate that Blackwell's Island had two reservoirs as well. The prison hospital was replaced with City Hospital, which was completed in 1861 and served both prisoners and New York City's poorer population. A "hospital for incurables" followed in 1866.