![]() ![]() The ruins of the Smallpox Hospital, which opened in 1856, were added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1972 It has also been documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey. Other buildings on Blackwell’s Island that have been documented by NPS programs include:īlackwell House, built in 1796, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 25, 1972. It was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1972. The Octagon, built originally in 1834 as the main entrance to the New York City Lunatic Asylum which opened in 1841, remains standing. Nonetheless, people with disabilities, like President Roosevelt, have lived and worked in many places, and they have played an important role in building American history. As the Telling All Americans’ Stories: Disability History Series indicates, people with disabilities have often been forced into poverty, prisons, or hospitals in our country’s history. In renaming the island after President Roosevelt, New York has made strides in honoring disability history. In 1973, the island was named after President Franklin Delanore Roosevelt, who lived with polio throughout his life. The tower is the only part of the original building that remains standing. The asylum is marked by an octagonal tower. Damaged by exposure to the elements and fire, Blackwell’s once-expansive network of prison and medical buildings are now unrecognizable. Like most of the original buildings on Blackwell’s Island, the asylum fell to ruin. When the Metropolitan Hospital moved out of the building in 1955, the old asylum was left empty. The Metropolitan Hospital occupied the asylum building, and Blackwell’s Island was renamed Welfare Island in 1921. In the early 1900s, the last asylum patients on Blackwell’s Island were moved to other hospitals. This exposé pressured Blackwell’s asylum and other facilities to consider more humane treatment options for patients. ![]() Bly described cold baths, filthy living conditions, spoiled food, and physical abuse from caretakers. While the male patients had been transferred to a new facility on Ward’s Island, the now-women’s asylum remained overcrowded. The 1887 book, Ten Days in a Madhouse, chronicled the abuses that Bly encountered after she went undercover as a mentally ill patient at Blackwell’s Island. In 1839, seven years after the penitentiary opened, the New York City Lunatic Asylum, first in the city, began accepting patients at Blackwell’s Island.īlackwell’s Island received national attention after investigative journalist Nellie Bly, born as Elizabeth Cochran Seaman, published a report of her time in the Women’s Lunatic Asylum. These individuals, many with mental or physical disabilities, may have had trouble caring for themselves at home. ![]() At the time, the word “incurables” referred to people with chronic or severe conditions that were not likely to be cured. Nineteenth century Blackwell’s Island was also home to a complex of workhouses, a general hospital, an almshouse, a hospital for “incurables,” and -for a time- a smallpox hospital. However, prisoners were not the only inmates on Blackwell’s Island. This physically isolated prisoners from the city and from the mainland. In 1832, a penitentiary was built on the island. New York City purchased the East River island in 1828. This unique designation points to the social and historical significance of this island. The dilapidated structures are also listed as a New York City Landmark, and they are the only ruins in New York City to be a local Landmark. While most of the buildings have long since fallen into disrepair, the ruins are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. For much of the early 1900s, New Yorkers nicknamed the island Welfare Island after the asylums, prisons, and almshouses that were built there. ![]() Blackwell’s Island, now known as Roosevelt Island, has a deep connection to disability and incarceration. ![]()
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