People Wait For Tomorrow's UWS Apple Store Opening
Giuliani Livid Over Bringing 9/11 Trials to NYC
Oreo The Dog Is Dead, Blame Game Is Not
FIT Students Busted For Drug Dealing Get Probation
Pregnant Woman And Two Men Shot In Clinton Hill Drive-By
Cool stuff: The 92nd Street Y/ Makor has a Roosevelt Island Hike this Sunday. As per the 92nd Street Blog, Roosevelt Island is more than just the decaying old hospital, the Island once had the "city’s main prison, a smallpox hospital, a disease research laboratory, an insane asylum, a fort and a lighthouse." There are some new development planned for Roosevelt Island (great midtown views!) but the movie Dark Water took the depressing approach to living there.
The event is at 11AM Sunday, March 19; tickets are $25. You'll be taking the tram over; the tram was the last holdout in the MTA that still used tokens.
Photograph by Jake Dobkin
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
March 25th isn't this Sunday, it's a week from this Sunday.
Ooh, thanks - I got a little confused because of the $25 fee.
$25 bucks?!
Check out Take A Walk New York - no tourists, and led by people in the know. Way better.
http://www.walkny.org/Step1.html
Their website ain't fancy, but the walks are great.
Or if you don't feel like leaving your computer, check out Forgotten NY. There is a pretty amazing page of Roosevelt Island stuff there.
$25? You get a box lunch with that, right?
Or, at least, access to some places that are off limits. But I doubt it, too much liability.
And, taking the train and not the tram?
Might be worth a visit. Roosevelt island is one of the corners of the City that is referenced little. Governor's island would be worth a visit too for that matter.
Oops, you are taking the tram.
The tour web pages talk about the General Slocum disaster and Typhoid Mary. I think they've mixed up Roosevelt Island and North Brother Island. North Brother is where the Slocum beached and where Typhoid Mary was imprisoned.
I adore Roosevelt Island. A Smallpox hospital AND an insane asylum? Jackpot! How about the bizarre old wooden house that's dwarfed by surrounding apartment buildings?
I hope they don't ruin the charm (can I even call it that?) that is that fair isle.
They have a self-guided walking tour one can take FOR FREE, although the signage is a bit moldy.
do you have any details on the free tour?
Here you are:
http://www.correctionhistory.org/rooseveltisland/roosevelt_island_tour.html
I love investigating out-of-the-way NYC spots, and so went to Roosevelt Island last fall. The tram was amazing. Then after I got off, I was dismayed to find no access to insane asylums or smallpox hospitals, got yelled at by someone who worked in a 5 and Dime, spit at by someone else, and ran for my life to get on the tram by sundown, lest even bigger weirdos attack. The insane asylum would've been safer.
Hmm, interesting. I lived on Roosevelt Island for a few months. The place has a weird feel to it because it's so incredibly quiet. Also, there's only one street!
Roosevelt Island was once the proposed site of a massive beaux-arts civic center. It had to have been inspired by the City Beautiful Movement.