The Roosevelt Island Smallpox Hospital
Wikimedia CommonsRoosevelt Island Smallpox Hospital was designed by James Renwick Jr., who also designed the Grace Church and St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.
Built in the early 1830s, Roosevelt Island’s Smallpox Hospital was supposed to be a sanatorium for those battling the invisible killer. But as was common in the 19th century, the hospital quickly became a repository for anyone deemed unfit for polite society.
The Gothic Revival structure was colloquially known as Renwick Hospital and named after James Renwick Jr., who also designed both the Grace Church and St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City before working on some additions to the smallpox hospital on Roosevelt Island.
In the 1800s, Roosevelt Island was still known as Blackwell’s Island for Robert Blackwell, whose family had been farming the land before the city purchased it in 1828. The island eventually became a repository for the city’s sick and criminal, as hospitals like the Smallpox Hospital and prisons were built there.
To its credit, Smallpox Hospital was perfectly situated as a quarantine hospital for infectious disease, as ferry access kept infected patients from infecting regular New Yorkers. And it did accomplish some good, as between 1856 and 1875, the now-abandoned hospital treated an estimated 7,000 people a year.
But seeing as it was a hospital of its day, the Smallpox Hospital often housed people who weren't even ill, including petty criminals, immigrants, and people with disabilities.
These patients were kept in deplorable conditions until 1887 when brazen journalist Nellie Bly went undercover as a patient there. Bly encountered widespread neglect and saw patients beaten by staff, malnourished, and one woman even died during Bly's stay.
Bly's damning exposé was published in New York World and in a subsequent book called Ten Days in a Mad-House. These two landmark publications prompted a court case and an official visit to Blackwell's Island, which led to several nurses being fired and various doctors being replaced.
In the early 20th century, the island became known as "Welfare Island" as the city had started to build its hospitals and prisons there.
The Smallpox Hospital moved to North Brothers Island in the 1950s, and Roosevelt Island became increasingly populated. It's been entirely abandoned ever since and only became a protected site by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1976. Its derelict facade remains standing to this day.
