North Brother Island’s Tragic Past
In the river between New York’s most densely built communities lies a 22-acre forested island, sitting desolate, undeveloped, dotted with rotting buildings and infrastructure. This island, North Brother Island, housed the notorious Riverside Hospital complex from 1881 to 1943. During Riverside’s tenure, it served as a tuberculosis sanitarium and respite for typhoid victims, including Mary Mallon, the original “Typhoid Mary,” who lived and died at Riverside. The island experienced even more tragedy in 1904 when the steamship General Slocum caught fire and sank along its shores. 1,021 people died in the sinking, washing onto the North Brother Island for days after the disaster. From 1946 to 1951, it served as housing for World War II veterans, until officials converted it into a youth drug rehab center between 1952 and 1963, when it closed to the public.
