Riverside Hospital
The Riverside Hospital was New York's quarantine hospital from 1885 to 1963 . It was located on the small island of North Brother Island in the East River . Today it only consists of ruins.
history
Prehistory (until 1885)
The smaller South Brother Island was built with a summer house in the 19th century, which burned down in 1909. It was purchased by a private company for $ 10,000 in 1979 and sold to the City of New York for $ 2 million in 2007 for use as a nature reserve. The Riverside Hospital was on the larger North Brother Island . The small settlement of Morrisania , now in the Bronx , bought the island in 1871 and a small group of charity sisters ran a small tuberculosis hospital on the island. The hospital closed again in 1885 when the City of New York bought the island to build a new quarantine hospital there. The island's isolated location predestined the island as a location for a hospital that specifically treats infectious diseases. The hospital became necessary due to the high incidence of diseases such as B. smallpox , typhus , tuberculosis , measles , diphtheria , fever and polio .
Operation as a quarantine hospital (1885 to 1943)
As soon as the first buildings were in place, the first patients were admitted, many of them from Renwick Smallpox Hospital on Roosevelt Island. A ferry that docked at 132nd Street supplied the island with personnel, patients and materials. Nevertheless, the island remained isolated for a long time, and a telegraph line was not installed until 1894. During the turn of the century, everyday hospital life was disrupted by constant overcrowding. There were not enough medical equipment available and the equipment could not be properly sterilized between frequent uses. When the buildings ran out of space for beds, tents were used outside. During a strong typhoid wave in 1892, the Riverside Hospital accommodated 1,200 patients.
On June 15, 1904, one of the worst marine disasters in human history occurred on the coast of the small island on which the clinic was located; the General Slocum disaster with 1,021 dead. Shortly before the island, a fire suddenly broke out on board the General Slocum. The captain didn't want to get stranded on the island so as not to endanger the hospital. So he fired the engines with even more oil to go against the current, which only accelerated the fire. Passengers who jumped into the water quickly drowned due to the heavy clothing they were wearing or were killed by the still rotating paddle wheel. There were mainly Germans on board, as the German community of New York took a trip on this steamer that day. Only 321 people survived, and many bodies and wreckage were washed ashore at the hospital.
In 1943 a large tuberculosis pavilion was built on the island, but it was no longer used as such due to a lack of staff.
Student residence and rehabilitation clinic (1943 to 1963)
From 1943 the tuberculosis pavilion was leased by the state and used as student accommodation because the universities could no longer accommodate their students. The students were transported on the Mott Haven and Greenwich Village ferries . The ferries left the ferry terminal on 134th Street. From 1952 the city leased the island again to set up an addiction clinic for young people. The young people were also transported on the two ferry boats Mott Haven and Greenwich Village . The aim was to keep the young people at a distance from the city's overcrowded prisons and clinics. The pavilion was rebuilt so that 100 boys and 50 girls could be accommodated. The young people were instructed by their parents or by the judiciary. Newcomers were first bathed and searched for drugs. Then the hard withdrawal began; if the symptoms became too severe, controlled drugs were administered.
Present (1963 to today)
In 1963 the addiction clinic was closed and the island was completely abandoned. Since then the island has been left to its own devices and flora and fauna have overgrown the ruins of the clinic for almost 50 years. Entering the island is prohibited. In 2009 the ruins served as a vivid example of how a fictitious disappearance of people would affect the buildings. The 8th episode of the first season of Future Without People , entitled "The Threat Remains" shows what it will look like 45 years after the people.
Mary Mallon
The most famous patient of the Riverside Hospital was probably Mary Mallon , also known as Typhus Mary. She immigrated from Ireland in 1883 and was the first person in the United States to not have contracted typhoid fever but spread the bacteria; she was a so-called permanent dropout . After she infected her environment with typhoid at various employers, the New York health department placed Mary Mallon in quarantine at Riverside Hospital. After re-infecting several people after her release, she was quarantined for life at Riverside Hospital, where she eventually died of pneumonia in 1938 .
Web links
Coordinates: 40 ° 48'5 " N , 73 ° 53'53.7" W.