Gothamist: Going to the Heart of Hart Island

Calvert

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 22:03:47 -0500

I made the trip there a couple years ago. I have a bunch of photos on Google Earth...that place is very surreal.

robingee

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:52:34 -0500

This would be great for the next Weird NY book (from the publishers of Weird NJ!).

kingstonlounge

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:24:59 -0500

And thanks for the reblog and kind comments everybody! One thing I do want to respond to is there was nothing creepy about either the place or the hour I visited; there was a sort of elegiac solitude that hung above the island, but it was by no means "creepy". It was actually very touching.

kingstonlounge

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:18:17 -0500

Just Saying, you are correct - the bulk of Fort Slocum was housed on David's Island, with a Nike site on the northern point of Hart Island. Sadly, all of the remaining structures on David's Island were razed earlier this year; I wish I could have made it out there, but sadly I did not. And GM, yes, Washington Square Park did indeed house one of the earlier potter's fields for the City of New York. So did Bryant Park and Madison Square Park.

jose garcia

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 05:55:07 -0500

wow wow wow. this is cool. great work.

nustita

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:37:40 -0500

These pictures are fascinating, particularly the one that shows the abandoned records room, with stacks of papers and ledgers rotting in the open air. This place needs an archivist.

just_saying

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:03:26 -0500

re David's Island--found this interesting tidbit on wikipedia: "From 1955 to 1960, Fort Slocum housed a Nike Ajax air-defense battery. The missiles were stored in underground silos on HART ISLAND and the radar and control base was on DAVID'S ISLAND."

NannyState

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:30:03 -0500

David's Island should be his next visit. It's way cool and housed a military base until the 1960's.

driftwood

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:44:07 -0500

I'm going to assume it's just easier for the government to restrict all access. Since there's hardly any transportation to get out there, it's a huge graveyard, a lot of historical buildings that require protecting, prisoners at work...it's probably just easier to call the island off limits so they don't have to worry about all the other logistics.

mdev

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:40:59 -0500

And for further reference, of those 30 acres that aren't the potter's field, I'm sure much of it already contains buildings. And an average Manhattan city block is about 6 acres, so we're really not talking about much available space here. Certainly nothing to get up in arms over.

mdev

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:37:43 -0500

The whole island is 131 acres and 101 of it are the potter's field. Is it really worth developing the necessary infrastructure to support residences on that island for less than 30 acres? I'm sure given another few decades, the potter's field will expand to the rest of the island anyways.

GM

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:31:24 -0500

Washington Square Park is a potters field too, right?

breaknight

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:25:26 -0500

Wow, f'ing creepy. Great pictures though.

rcltrh

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:02:46 -0500

Wow, really #12? No shit. So the entire island is one big ole potters field that no-one can go to unless someone you are related to is buried there? Who is buried under all those acres where the actual cemetery isn't located? So by your logic Brooklyn and Queens should be off limits and uninhabited because we have cemeteries here too? Who's the idiot, idiot.

gasoline serpent

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:55:06 -0500

#8- it's a potters field. People are buried here, and disinterred, and buried again. It's not just a park. It's an active ENORMOUS cemetery for the homeless, nameless and unclaimed of NYC. Not the best place for the uninformed bleeding heart's constant call for "affordable housing and parks". Can you not read or are you just an idiot?

robingee

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:36:13 -0500

These pics were taken at 4AM?

dimshine

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:52:04 -0500

so does this guy just sneak onto places? cool!

babyhitler

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:45:49 -0500

This could be the next McCarren Pool. Hipster Island.

rcltrh

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:41:44 -0500

Its ridiculous that we still have entire islands in America that are "off limits" by taxpaying citizens. Who gets to decide what places are "off limits" and how do we get some of those insane laws changed. From the looks of those dilapidated buildings what would it hurt for people to go here, and if its just sitting there abandoned why not open it up as a park, build affordable housing there, etc. Instead we just pay people to patrol it and say its a no trespassing piece of land for no real reason.

catatonina

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:38:59 -0500

these are awesome! i'm kind of glad that the state keeps people off the island or this place would have been visited by looters and grafitti kids by now (now that i don't love grafitti artists, but...)

schadenfreudian mensch

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:38:04 -0500

Why is it off limits? They're afraid of grave robbers?

fugothamist

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:33:12 -0500

how do i get there by subway?

fastergrace

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:20:29 -0500

Fascinating. I'd love to check it out.

robingee

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:17:40 -0500

Wasn't this island featured in that Michael Douglas movie? You know the one. With Michael Douglas.

ides_of_march

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:15:19 -0500

I would love to have a chance to look around Hart Island. Must have been fascinating. Unlike like this guy, however, I'm not willing to risk getting arrested.

gasoline serpent

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:00:54 -0500

Incredible history, incredible writeup and clearly one of Richard's riskiest adventures as of yet in the name of documenting forgotten structures. Good call on covering this, Gothamist.