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View Full Version : The Forgotten Leper Colony of New York City: North Brother Island



Teh One Who Knocks
02-05-2012, 02:43 PM
The island 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 island was the site of the wreck of the General Slocum, a steamship which burned on June 15, 1904. Over 1,000 people died either from the fire on board the ship or from drowning before the ship was beached on the island's shores.

Typhoid Mary was confined to the island for over two decades until she died there in 1938. The hospital closed shortly thereafter.

After World War II, the island housed war veterans who were students at local colleges, along with their families. After the nationwide housing shortage abated, the island was once again abandoned.

In the 1950s a center opened to treat adolescent drug addicts. The facility claimed to be the first to offer treatment, rehabilitation, and education facilities to young drug offenders. Heroin addicts were confined to this island and locked in a room until they were clean. Many of them believed they were being held against their will (as one person wrote on the wall). By the early 1960s widespread staff corruption and patient recidivism forced the facility to close.

Now a bird sanctuary, the island is currently abandoned and off-limits to the public. Most of the original hospitals' buildings still stand, but are heavily deteriorated and in danger of collapse. A dense forest conceals the ruined hospital buildings, and from the 1980s through the early 2000s it supported one of the area's largest nesting colonies of Black-crowned Night Heron. However as of 2011 this species has abandoned the island, for unknown reasons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Brother_Island


http://i.imgbox.com/aafOT6Hk.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aafOT6Hk) http://i.imgbox.com/aacILq3M.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aacILq3M) http://i.imgbox.com/aalzwisz.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aalzwisz) http://i.imgbox.com/aavY49fR.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aavY49fR) http://i.imgbox.com/aaeXJ50t.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aaeXJ50t) http://i.imgbox.com/aakXqVPE.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aakXqVPE) http://i.imgbox.com/aahvBBun.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aahvBBun) http://i.imgbox.com/aaxVsgbD.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aaxVsgbD) http://i.imgbox.com/aarjO449.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aarjO449) http://i.imgbox.com/aadLnAPK.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aadLnAPK) http://i.imgbox.com/aav3Bfgm.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aav3Bfgm) http://i.imgbox.com/aauMzo2U.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aauMzo2U) http://i.imgbox.com/aazIGyNR.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aazIGyNR) http://i.imgbox.com/aabuA0lE.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aabuA0lE) http://i.imgbox.com/aagdiimn.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aagdiimn) http://i.imgbox.com/aae73FK9.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aae73FK9) http://i.imgbox.com/aat5hjQH.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aat5hjQH) http://i.imgbox.com/aaolmScm.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aaolmScm) http://i.imgbox.com/aas2fJGY.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aas2fJGY) http://i.imgbox.com/aauT0Nrf.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aauT0Nrf) http://i.imgbox.com/aazA8X3b.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aazA8X3b) http://i.imgbox.com/aaupHRGQ.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aaupHRGQ) http://i.imgbox.com/aarsw14c.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aarsw14c) http://i.imgbox.com/aajWNF7w.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aajWNF7w) http://i.imgbox.com/aale1k4U.jpg (http://imgbox.com/aale1k4U)

redred
02-05-2012, 04:13 PM
would be a good film location

deebakes
02-05-2012, 04:21 PM
:uwank:

DemonGeminiX
02-05-2012, 05:11 PM
A broom, a little paint, some nice curtains...

Griffin
02-05-2012, 05:24 PM
What did the leper say to the prostitute?




...keep the tip.

Muddy
02-05-2012, 07:05 PM
Man... Awesome set...

Loser
02-05-2012, 07:17 PM
Typhoid mary spent 20 years there...I'm not going anywhere NEAR that place :lol:

deebakes
02-05-2012, 07:17 PM
Man... Awesome set...

:+1:

Muddy
02-05-2012, 07:28 PM
I just read all about "Typhoid Mary"... Wow...

Teh One Who Knocks
02-05-2012, 07:31 PM
Typhoid mary spent 20 years there...I'm not going anywhere NEAR that place :lol:

She died three quarters of a century ago, I don't think it's still contagious :slap:


:P

DemonGeminiX
02-05-2012, 09:56 PM
Typhoid mary spent 20 years there...I'm not going anywhere NEAR that place :lol:

World War 2 veterans were housed there after the war ended. There was a housing shortage during the time. They also set up some kind of drug rehabilitation center there in the 50s, but it closed due to corruption. No one ever got Typhoid fever from living there.

It's abandoned and supposedly a bird sanctuary these days.

deebakes
02-05-2012, 10:01 PM
dgx is smart :shock:

Teh One Who Knocks
02-05-2012, 10:53 PM
dgx is smart :shock:

Either that or....he just actually read the first post :rolleyes:

Goofy
02-05-2012, 11:01 PM
Either that or....he just actually read the first post :rolleyes:

DGX can read? :shock:
























:banana:

DemonGeminiX
02-06-2012, 12:12 AM
Must've been that shot to the head I took yesterday.

:-k

Muddy
02-06-2012, 01:35 AM
I actually read the first post and expounded on it with a little research on Typhoid Mary..

Loser
02-06-2012, 01:48 AM
I actually read the first post and expounded on it with a little research on Typhoid Mary..

Ditto.

Muddy
02-06-2012, 01:50 AM
What a scary chick, man..

deebakes
02-06-2012, 02:28 AM
Scary hot :oops:

Loser
02-06-2012, 02:51 AM
What a scary chick, man..

She contracted it at birth, so there is really no telling how many people she might of infected.