The North and South Brother Islands are two small islands nestled between the Bronx and Rikers Island in the busy city of New York. South Brother Island, once privately owned until 2007, is now part of the city and belongs to Bronx County.
North Brother Island has a fascinating history. It used to be a quarantine facility with a large hospital that isolated people with various illnesses brought into the city. Nowadays, it’s abandoned and serves as a sanctuary for birds. Interestingly, these islands were originally called “De Gesellen,” meaning “The Companions,” when the Dutch West India Company claimed them in 1614.
North Brother Island’s history goes back to the 1880s, but it stopped operating in the 1960s. The Riverside Hospital was built there to treat patients with diseases like typhoid and smallpox. Later, in the 1950s, it became a center for rehabilitating teenagers addicted to heroin. For nearly sixty years, the island was empty, with rundown buildings attracting curious tourists.
Nature gradually took over the island, making it look like a lost civilization in the middle of New York City. But there’s a tragic event in its history: the General Slocum steamship disaster in 1904, where over 1,000 people died in a fire or drowned.
One famous person linked to North Brother Island is Mary Mallon, also known as Typhoid Mary. She was the first identified asymptomatic carrier of typhoid in the US and unintentionally infected 22 people, causing three deaths. She spent her later years at Riverside Hospital and died from pneumonia in 1938.
In the 1950s, Riverside Hospital became the nation’s first facility to help young drug offenders, though there were claims of mistreatment, leading to its closure.
Over the years, there have been many ideas about what to do with the abandoned island, including housing for the homeless, selling it, or preserving it. Eventually, it became a bird sanctuary, especially for herons, and is off-limits to visitors. Since 2008, several bird species have left the site for unknown reasons, but barn swallows are still there, nesting in the island’s ruins.
Since 2016, the City Council has been considering allowing legal visits to North Brother Island. A visit by Council member Mark Levine showed that the island is still dangerous, with unsafe structures and lots of plants like porcelain berry, kudzu, and poison ivy.
This mysterious hospital has also played a part in cultural history, inspiring a play called “Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?” with actor Al Pacino having one of his early performances there. In 2009, it was used as a filming location for an episode of the History Channel’s “Life After People,” showing what happens to abandoned structures over time.
