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Hart Island (Bronx)

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Hart Island
Hart Island NY from City Island.JPG
Viewed from City Island
Location in New York City
Geography
LocationLong Island Sound
Coordinates40°51′9″N 73°46′12″W / 40.85250°N 73.77000°W / 40.85250; -73.77000Coordinates: 40°51′9″N 73°46′12″W / 40.85250°N 73.77000°W / 40.85250; -73.77000
ArchipelagoPelham Islands
Area131.22 acres (53.10 ha)
Length1.0 mi (1.6 km)
Width0.25 mi (0.4 km)
StateNew York
CityNew York City
BoroughBronx

Hart Island, sometimes referred to as Hart's Island,[3] is an island in the northeast Bronx, New York City. The island is approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) long by 1⁄3 mile (0.54 km) wide and is located at the western end of Long Island Sound. It is part of the Pelham Islands group, which is located to the east of City Island.[4][5]

The island's first public use was training United States Colored Troops in 1864. Since then, Hart Island has been the location of a Union Civil War prison camp, a psychiatric institution, a tuberculosis sanatorium, a potter's field, a homeless shelter, a boys' reformatory, a jail, and a drug rehabilitation center.[6] Several other structures, such as an amusement park, were planned for Hart Island but these were not built. During the Cold War, Nike defense missiles were stationed on Hart Island. The island was intermittently used as a prison and a homeless shelter until 1967, and the last inhabited structures were abandoned in 1977. The island now serves as the city's potter's field and is run by the New York City Department of Correction.

More than one million people are buried on Hart Island though, since the first decade of the 21st century, there are fewer than 1,500 burials a year. Burials on Hart Island include individuals who have not been claimed by their families, the homeless and the indigent. Access to the island is restricted; it can only be reached by ferryboat, family members of those interred must request access in advance, and the New York City government only allows 50 to 70 visitors per month as of 2017. The Hart Island Project, which was founded in 1994, has assisted families in obtaining copies of public burial records and has advocated for easier access to the island.

Etymology[edit]

There are several versions of the origin of the island's name. In one, British cartographers named it "Heart Island" in 1775 due to its organ-like shape but the 'e' was dropped shortly after.[7][4]:75 A map drawn in 1777 and subsequent maps refer to the island as "Hart Island".[4]:75 Other names given to the island during the late 18th century were "Little Minneford Island" and "Spectacle Island", the latter because the island's shape was thought to resemble spectacles.[4]:75

Another theory, based on the meaning of the English word "hart", which means "stag", is that the island was named when it was used as a game preserve.[8] Another version holds that it was named in reference to deer that migrated from the mainland during periods when ice covered that part of Long Island Sound.[9]:19[10]:140

Geography[edit]

Hart Island is approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) long by 1⁄3 mile (0.54 km) wide at its widest point. It lies about 1⁄3 mile (0.54 km) off the eastern shore of City Island.[4]:75[11] The island's area is disputed; according to some sources, it is 101 acres (41 ha),[4]:75[7][12] while others state that it is 131 acres (53 ha).[13][14] Hart Island is isolated from the rest of the city: there is no electricity and the only means of access is via ferryboat.[11][5]

History[edit]

1836 Nautical Chart
1884 Nautical Chart

Early history[edit]

Before European colonization, Hart Island was occupied by the Siwanoy tribe of Native Americans, who were indigenous to the area. In 1654, English physician Thomas Pell purchased the island from the Siwanoy as part of a 9,166-acre (37.09 km2) property.[15][4]:75[10]:140 Pell died in 1669 and ownership passed to his nephew Sir John Pell, the son of British mathematician John Pell. The island remained in the Pell family until 1774, when it was sold to Oliver De Lancey. It was later sold to the Rodman, Haight, and Hunter families, in that order.[4]:75 According to Elliott Gorn, Hart Island had become "a favorite pugilistic hideaway" by the early 19th century. Bouts of bare-knuckle boxing held on the island could draw thousands of spectators.[10]:140

The first public use of Hart Island was training United States Colored Troops beginning in 1864.[16] A steamboat called John Romer shuttled recruits to the island from the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan. A commander's house and a recruits' barracks were built; the barracks included a library and a concert room;[4]:75 it could house 2,000 to 3,000 recruits at a time, and over 50,000 men were ultimately trained there.[4]:76

In November 1864, construction of a prisoner-of-war camp on Hart Island with room for 5,000 prisoners started.[4]:75 The camp was used for four months in 1865 during the American Civil War. The island housed 3,413 captured Confederate Army soldiers; of these, 235 died in the camp and were buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery. Following the Civil War, indigent veterans were buried on the island in soldier's plots, which were separate from the potter's field and at the same location. Some of these soldiers were moved to West Farms Soldiers Cemetery in 1916 and others were removed to Cypress Hills Cemetery in 1941.[17]

Addition of cemetery[edit]

A trench at the potter's field on Hart Island, circa 1890 by Jacob Riis

Burials on Hart Island began with 20 Union Army soldiers during the American Civil War.[1] On May 27, 1868, New York City purchased the island from Edward Hunter, who also owned nearby Hunter Island, for $75,000.[7][1][10]:141 City burials started shortly afterward.[1] In 1869, a 24-year-old woman named Louisa Van Slyke, who died in Charity Hospital, was the first person to be buried in the island's 45-acre (180,000 m2) public graveyard.[18][9][10]:138 The cemetery then became known as "City Cemetery" and "Potter's Field".[19]

By 1880, The New York Times described the island as "the Green-Wood of Five Points", comparing an expansive cemetery in Brooklyn with a historically poor neighborhood in Manhattan. The newspaper also said of Hart Island, "This is where the rough pine boxes go that come from Blackwell's Island". Blackwell Island, now called Roosevelt Island, formerly hosted several hospitals.[20] The potter's field on Hart Island replaced two previous potter's fields on the current sites of Washington Square Park and New York Public Library Main Branch in Manhattan. The number of burials on Hart Island exceeded 500,000 by 1958.[21]

Juxtaposition of uses[edit]

Hart Island was used as a quarantine station during the 1870 yellow fever epidemic. In that period, the island contained a women's psychiatric hospital called The Pavilion, which was built 1885, as well as a tubercularium.[22] There was also an industrial school with 300 students on the island.[20] After an 1892 investigation found the city's asylums were overcrowded, it was proposed to expand those on Hart Island from 1,100 to 1,500 beds.[23]

Convalescent Hospital on Hart Island, 1877

In the late 19th century, Hart Island became the location of a boys' workhouse, which was an extension of the prison and almshouse on Blackwell Island. A workhouse for men was established in 1895, and was followed by a workhouse for young boys ten years later.[10]:141 By the early 20th century, Hart Island housed about 2,000 delinquent boys as well as elderly male prisoners from Blackwell's penitentiary.[24] The prison on Hart Island grew; it had its own band and a Catholic prison chapel.[4]:77 The cornerstone for the $60,000 chapel was laid in 1931[25] and it was opened the following year.[26]

In 1924, John Hunter sold his 4-acre (1.6 ha) tract of land on Hart Island's west side to Solomon Riley, a millionaire real estate speculator from Barbados.[27] Riley subsequently proposed to build an amusement park on Hart Island, which would have served the primarily black community of Harlem in Manhattan.[10]:141–142 It was referred to as the "Negro Coney Island"[27] because at the time, the Rye Playland and Dobbs Ferry amusement parks in the New York City area barred African Americans from entering.[27][10]:142 Riley had started building a dance hall, boardinghouses, and a boardwalk, and purchased sixty steamboats for the operation.[27][10]:142 The state government raised concerns about the proposed park's proximity to a jail and hospital,[28] and the city condemned the land in 1925.[29] Riley was later paid $144,000 for the seizure.[30]

After World War II[edit]

The prison population of Hart Island was moved to Rikers Island during World War II, and Hart Island's former workhouse was used as a disciplinary barracks by the United States Armed Forces. Rikers Island soon became overcrowded with prisoners.[10]:142 The New York City Department of Correction reopened Hart Island as a prison following the war, but the facilities were considered inadequate.[31] The New York City Board of Estimate approved the construction of a homeless shelter on the island in 1950; it was intended to serve 2,000 people.[4]:78 The homeless shelter operated from 1951 to 1954;[10]:142 it was also used to house alcoholics.[32] Residents of nearby City Island opposed the inclusion of the homeless shelter.[33][10]:142 The New York City Welfare Department closed the homeless shelter and the Department of Correction regained control of the island.[4]:78 The Department of Correction opened an alcoholism treatment center on Hart Island in 1955.[34] A courthouse, which ruled on cases involving the homeless, was opened on Hart Island.[35] The island housed between 1,200 and 1,800 prisoners serving short sentences of between 10 days and two years.[36]

In 1956, the island was retrofitted with Nike Ajax missile silos. Battery NY-15, as the silos were known, were part of the United States Army base Fort Slocum from 1956 to 1961 and were operated by the army's 66th Antiaircraft Artillery Missile Battalion. The silos were underground and were powered by large generators.[10]:142[18] Some silos were also built on Davids' Island. The Integrated Fire Control system that tracked the targets and directed missiles was in Fort Slocum. The last components of the missile system were closed in 1974.[37]

Construction of a new $7 million workhouse on Hart Island to replace the existing facility was announced in 1959.[38] A baseball field was dedicated at the Hart Island prison the following year.[39] It was named Kratter Field, after Marvin Kratter, a businessman who had donated 2,200 seats saved from the demolished Ebbets Field stadium.[10]:142 The seats deteriorated after being outdoors for several years, and were later donated to various people and organizations.[40]

The island continued to be used as a prison until 1966, when the prison was closed due to changes in the penal code.[4]:79[10]:142 After it closed, a drug rehabilitation center was proposed for Hart Island.[41] The center became Phoenix House, which opened in 1967; it quickly grew into a settlement with 350 residents and a vegetable garden. Phoenix House hosted festivals that sometimes attracted crowds of more than 10,000 people.[10]:141 Phoenix House published a newsletter known as The Hart Beat and organized baseball games against other organizations such as City Island's and NBC's teams.[4]:79 In 1977, after regular ferry service to Hart Island ended, Phoenix House moved from the island to a building in Manhattan.[10]:142[42][11]

Since then, proposals to re-inhabit the island have failed. In 1972, the city considered converting it into a residential resort but the plan abandoned.[11] New York City mayor Ed Koch created a workhouse on the island for persons charged with misdemeanors in 1982 but not enough prisoners were sent there. Six years later, another proposal called for a homeless shelter and a workhouse to be built on Hart Island, but this plan was abandoned because of opposition from residents of City Island.[10]:142

Abandonment of structures and use as cemetery[edit]

Originally, City Cemetery occupied 45 acres (18 ha) on the northern and southern tips of Hart Island, while the center two-thirds of the island was habitable.[11] In 1985, sixteen bodies infected with AIDS were buried at the southern tip of Hart Island, away from the rest of the corpses, because it was believed that the dead AIDS victims would contaminate the other corpses with the disease.[43] The first pediatric AIDS victim to die in New York City is buried in the only single grave on Hart Island with a concrete marker that reads SC (special child) B1 (Baby 1) 1985.[9]:83[43] Since then, thousands of AIDS victims have been buried on Hart Island, but the precise number of AIDS victims buried on the island is unknown.[43]

From 1991 to 1993, New York artist Melinda Hunt and photographer Joel Sternfeld photographed Hart Island for their book of the same name,[44] which was published in 1998.[44][45] Hunt subsequently founded the Hart Island Project organization in 1994 to help the families and friends of those buried on Hart Island.[46][44]

There is a section of old wooden houses and masonry institutional structures dating back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries that have fallen into disrepair. Military barracks from the Civil War period were used prior to the construction of workhouse and hospital facilities.[6] In the late 2010s, the Hart Island Project and City Island Historical Society started petitioning for Hart Island to be designated a National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) landmark.[47] The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation labeled the island a "site of historical significance" in 2016, since it passed three of four NRHP criteria.[48]

The island was significantly affected by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and some of the shoreline was eroded, which exposed many of the skeletons buried on the island.[49][50] Following this, the city announced a $13 million restoration of the shoreline.[51]

Aerial view showing Hart Island (lower right) and City Island (left) in 2010

Cemetery[edit]

Hart Island is the location of the 131-acre (0.53 km2) public cemetery, or potter's field, for New York City. The cemetery is variously described as the largest tax-funded cemetery in the United States[52] the largest-such in the world,[46][53] and one of the largest mass graves in the United States.[54][55] More than one million dead are buried on the island; since the 2000s, however, the burial rate is now fewer than 1,500 a year.[9][53][54][56] One-third of annual burials are infants and stillborn babies, which has been reduced from a proportion of one-half since children's health insurance began to cover all pregnant women in New York State.[57][56] During 2005, there were 1,419 burials in the island's potter's field; these consisted of 826 adults, 546 infants and stillborn babies, and 47 burials of dismembered body parts.[18]

Burials[edit]

The dead are buried in trenches. Babies are placed in coffins, which are stacked in groups of 1,000, measuring five coffins deep and usually in twenty rows.[9] Adults are placed in larger pine boxes placed according to size, and are stacked in sections of 150, measuring three coffins deep in two rows.[9][10]:138[5] There are seven sizes of coffins, which range from 1 to 7 feet (0.30 to 2.13 m) long.[58] Each box is labeled with an identification number, the person's age, ethnicity, and the place where the body was found, if applicable.[49][59] Inmates from the Rikers Island jail are paid $0.50 per hour to bury bodies on Hart Island.[49][60]

Adults are frequently disinterred when families are able to locate their relatives through DNA, photographs and fingerprints kept on file at the Office of the Medical Examiner.[9] There were an average of 72 disinterments per year from 2007 to 2009. As a result, the adults' coffins are staggered to expedite removal.[10]:138 Children, mostly infants, are rarely disinterred.[9] Regulations stipulate that the coffins generally must remain untouched for 25 years, except in cases of disinterment.[4]:78

Approximately half of the burials are of children under five who are identified and died in New York City's hospitals, where the mothers signed papers authorizing a "City Burial" without knowing what the phrase means. Many other interred have families who live abroad or out of state and whose relatives search extensively; these searches are made more difficult because burial records are currently kept within the prison system.[61] An investigation into the handling of the infant burials was opened in response to a criminal complaint made to the New York State Attorney General's Office in 2009.[61]

Burial records on microfilm at the Municipal Archives indicate that until 1913, burials of unknowns were in single plots, and identified adults and children were buried in mass graves.[60][62] In 1913, the trenches became separate to facilitate the more frequent disinterment of adults. The potter's field is also used to dispose of amputated body parts, which are placed in boxes labeled "limbs". Ceremonies have not been conducted at the burial site since the 1950s.[9]:83[63] In the past, burial trenches were re-used after 25–50 years, allowing for sufficient decomposition of the remains. Since then, however, historic buildings have been demolished to make room for new burials.[10]:139[64] Because of the number of weekly interments made at the potter's field at the expense of taxpayers, these mass burials are straightforward and are conducted by Rikers Island inmates, who stack the coffins in two rows, three high and 25 across, and each plot is marked with a concrete marker. A tall, white, peace monument was erected by New York City prison inmates at the top of a hill that was known as "Cemetery Hill following World War II[65] and was dedicated in October 1948.[66]

During the 1980s, those who had died from AIDS were the only people to be buried in separate graves. The first AIDS victims' bodies were delivered in body bags and buried by inmate workers wearing protective jumpsuits. When it was later discovered that the corpses could not spread HIV, the city started burying AIDS victims in the mass graves.[43]

Records[edit]

Many burial records were destroyed by arson in the late 1970s. Remaining records of burials before 1977 were transferred to the Municipal Archives in Manhattan, while records after that date are stored digitally.[67][68] A Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request for 50,000 burial records was granted to The Hart Island Project in 2008.[69][70] The 1,403 pages provided by the Department of Correction contain lists of all burials from 1985 to 2007. A second FOI request for records from September 1, 1977, to December 31, 1984, was submitted to the Department of Correction on June 2, 2008, and New York City has located 502 pages from that period.[71] A lawsuit concerning "place of death" information redacted from the Hart Island burial records was filed against New York City in July 2008 and was settled out of court in January 2009.[72]

Notable burials[edit]

Those interred on Hart Island are not necessarily homeless or indigent. Many of the dead either had families who could not afford the expenses of private funerals or were not claimed by relatives within a month of death. Notable burials include the playwright, film screenwriter, and director Leo Birinski, who died alone and in poverty, was buried there in 1951.[53] The American novelist Dawn Powell was buried on Hart Island in 1970, five years after her death, when the executor of her estate refused to reclaim her remains after being used for medical studies. Academy Award winner Bobby Driscoll, who was found dead in 1968 in an East Village tenement, was buried on Hart Island because his remains could not be identified in a timely fashion.[73]

Public engagement[edit]

The Hart Island Project[edit]

Since 1994, the Hart Island Project has independently assisted families in obtaining copies of public burial records. The group also helps people find loved ones and negotiate visits to their grave sites.[74][75][76] The Hart Island Project was founded by New York artist Melinda Hunt.[44][46] Historian Thomas Laqueur writes:

Woody Guthrie's song about the unnamed Mexican migrant dead has had a long resonant history. Hunt, in an emotionally related gesture, has researched, for years, in order to publish the names of as many as 850,000 paupers who lie in 101 acres of Hart Island where the city buries its anonymous dead.[77]

In 2011, the Hart Island Project completed an online database of burial records dating back to 1980. The project's database helps the relatives and loved ones of the almost one million people buried on Hart Island to get information about their relatives.[78] Information such as burial location and other records have been collected in the database. The project has led to reforms of access to Hart Island such as opening the island monthly to everyone[79] and legislation that requires the Department of Corrections to publish burial records online.[80]

The Hart Island Project has digitally mapped grave trenches using the Global Positioning System (GPS). In 2014, an interactive map with GPS burial data and storytelling software "clocks of anonymity" was released as "The Traveling Cloud Museum",[81] which collects publicly submitted stories of those who are listed in the burial records. "Traveling Cloud Museum" was created to allow people who knew the deceased to add stories, photographs, epitaphs, songs and videos linked to a personal profile.[82][83]

An art exhibition of people whose graves were located through The Hart Island Project with help from Melinda Hunt was held at Westchester Community College in 2012.[84][85][86] In July 2015, The Hart Island Project collaborated with British landscape architects Ann Sharrock and Ian Fisher to present a landscape strategy to the New York City Council and the Parks Department.[87] Sharrock introduced the concept that Hart Island is a natural burial facility and outlined a growing interest in green burials in urban settings.[88][89]

Legislation[edit]

On October 28, 2011, the New York City Council Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice held a hearing titled "Oversight: Examining the Operation of Potter's Field by the N.Y.C., Department of Correction on Hart Island".[90][91] Two bills passed in 2013 require the Department of Correction to make two sets of documents available on the Internet; a database of burials and a visitation policy.[92] In April 2013, the Department of Correction published an online database of burials on the island.[80][93] The database contains data about all persons buried on the island since 1977 and is composed of 66,000 entries.[6][46]

Proposed transfer to Parks Department[edit]

A bill to transfer jurisdiction to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation was introduced on April 30, 2012.[94][95] The Hart Island Project testified in favor of this bill on September 27, 2012, but it did not succeed.[96][97]

The bill was reintroduced in March 2014.[88] Proponents of the bill said it would make it significantly easier for loved ones to visit their dead and that as a park, Hart Island would be the ninth public cemetery in the city to become a public park. It would join other large parks that were once cemeteries, such as Madison Square Park, Washington Square Park, and Bryant Park.[98] Bill 0134 had a public hearing on January 20, 2016.[88][99][100][101][102] The bill ultimately failed because neither the Parks Department nor the Department of Correction supported the move. The Parks Department stated that the operation of an active cemetery was outside its purview while the Department of Correction preferred that another city agency take control of Hart Island.[103]

In 2018, City Council member Ydanis Rodríguez and three colleagues re-introduced the bill a second time.[104] In supporting the bill, Rodriguez stated that he wanted relatives of Hart Island's deceased to be able to access their loved ones' graves.[105][106]

Access[edit]

Hart Island ferry pier

The only access to Hart Island is by ferryboat.[11] Hart Island and the pier on Fordham Street on City Island are restricted areas under the jurisdiction of the New York City Department of Correction. Family members who wish to visit the island must request a visit ahead of time with the Department of Correction. New York City offers no provisions for individuals wanting to visit Hart Island without contacting the prison system.[107] The City of New York permits family visits, allows family members to leave mementos at grave sites, and maintains an online and telephone system for family members to schedule grave site visits.[108] Those who are able to get an appointment must arrive at a designated time, relinquish cameras and cell phones, sign a legal release, and produce government issued identification. Other members of the public were permitted to visit by prior appointment only. Interested parties were instructed to contact the Office of Constituent Services to schedule a visit to a gazebo near the docking point of the ferry on Hart Island.[109]

The city formerly operated a 24/7 ferry service between City and Hart Islands, which ran every forty-five minutes during the day and less frequently at night.[110] The ferries also transported corpses. By the 1960s, two ferryboats were used for the Hart Island ferry service; the Michael Cosgrove (built 1961) and the Fordham (in service 1922–1982).[4]:78[111] The service was extremely expensive to operate; in 1967, about 1,500 people per month used the service and the city spent $300,000 per year to keep it running.[110] By 1977, the city had discontinued frequent ferry service and provided seven trips a day.[11] The city's Department of Correction offered one guided tour of the island in 2000.[112] An ecumenical group named the Interfaith Friends of Potter's Field has intermittently conducted memorial services on the island.[113]

The process of visiting the island has been improved due to efforts by the Hart Island Project and the New York Civil Liberties Union.[108] From July 2015, up to five family members accompanied by guests may visit grave sites on one weekend per month.[114] The first visit took place on July 19, 2015.[115] Since then, there have been two ferry trips to the island every month; one for family members and their guests, and one for members of the general public.[114] The ferry leaves from a restricted dock on City Island. There is legislation pending that would adjust the ferry trips to permit more frequent and regular travel to Hart Island.[116] In 2017, the City increased the maximum number of visitors per month from 50 to 70.[117] The Department of Correction has opposed further loosening of restrictions on accessing Hart Island; a The New York Times article quoted a Corrections official as saying: "As long as D.O.C. runs the facility, we are going to run it with the D.O.C. mentality".[103]

In popular culture[edit]

Hart Island is mentioned in William Styron's 1951 novel Lie Down in Darkness, which describes the island as occupied by a lone hart that is shot by a hunter in a rowing boat.[118] It is also the subject of the novel The Treasure of Hart Island by Mike Monahan, a former detective with the New York City Police Department.[119] In Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 6 episode Haunted (2004), fictional detectives Melinda Warner and Fin Tutuola travel to Hart Island to exhume the body of a former drug addict after a tip that she was buried as a Jane Doe.[120] The 1993 film The Saint of Fort Washington contains footage of Hart Island.[4]:78 Additionally, in 2019, Hart Island was shown in the opening episode of the second season of Pose.[121]

Hart Island has also been shown in historical works. The island is documented in Hart Island, a 1998 book of photographs by Melinda Hunt and Joel Sternfeld.[44][45] The 2018 documentary One Million American Dreams documents the history of Hart Island and delves briefly into the lives of various individuals buried there.[122][123]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d "Purchase of Hart's Island". The New York Times. February 27, 1869. Archived from the original on July 5, 2018. Retrieved April 4, 2010. The Department of Charities and Correction have bought from Mr. Edward Hunter, Hart's Island, in Long Island Sound, and about sixteen miles from the City, for the purpose of establishing there an industrial school for destitute boys, who may be too large for the school on Randall's Island.
  2. ^ Federal Writers' Project (1939). New York City: Vol 1, New York City Guide. US History Publishers. ISBN 978-1-60354-055-1. Archived from the original on August 22, 2016. Retrieved April 3, 2019.
  3. ^ See, for instance:[1][2]
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Twomey, Bill (2007). The Bronx, in Bits and Pieces. Rooftop Publishing. pp. 74–79. ISBN 978-1-60008-062-3.
  5. ^ a b c "News 12 gets rare look at Hart Island, Potter's Field". News 12 The Bronx. May 11, 2017. Archived from the original on April 3, 2019. Retrieved April 3, 2019.
  6. ^ a b c Corey Kilgannon (November 15, 2013). "Visiting the Island of the Dead. A Rare Visit to New York's Potter's Field on Hart Island". New York Times. Archived from the original on November 18, 2013. Retrieved November 17, 2013.
  7. ^ a b c Santora, Marc (January 27, 2003). "An Island Of the Dead Fascinates The Living". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 11, 2012. Retrieved April 4, 2010. During World War II, the Navy used the workhouses on the island as a disciplinary barracks. After the war, in 1955, the Army installed a Nike missile base to defend against an attack by Soviet long-range bombers. The 21-foot missiles were stored underground, and Miller writes that the complex needed a generator powerful enough to provide electricity for a town of 10,000.
  8. ^ "The Islands of Pelham Bay". New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Archived from the original on March 9, 2005. Retrieved November 15, 2009.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Hunt, Melinda; Joel Sternfeld. Hart Island. ISBN 978-3-931141-90-5.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Seitz, Sharon; Miller, Stuart (June 6, 2011). The Other Islands of New York City: A History and Guide (Third Edition). The Countryman Press. pp. 138–144. ISBN 978-1-58157-886-7.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Goodwin, Michael (March 19, 1978). "Hart Island Full of Possibilities‐and Not Much Else". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on January 8, 2019. Retrieved January 7, 2019.
  12. ^ "Hart Island". NY Correction History Society. Archived from the original on October 9, 2018. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  13. ^ "Inside the mysteries of Hart Island in the Bronx, the cemetery of the unknown". WPIX 11 New York. May 10, 2017. Archived from the original on January 1, 2019. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  14. ^ "New York allows rare glimpse of its potter's field cemetery". Reuters. June 28, 2016. Archived from the original on January 1, 2019. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  15. ^ Lustenberger, Anita A. (2000). "A Short Genealogy of Hart Island". New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. Archived from the original on October 7, 2006. Retrieved November 5, 2006.
  16. ^ "Civil War Colored Troops on DOC islands". Archived from the original on May 12, 2016. Retrieved April 29, 2016.
  17. ^ "cwpows7". Correctionhistory.org. Archived from the original on July 16, 2013. Retrieved April 11, 2014.
  18. ^ a b c Emily Brady. "A Chance to Be Mourned". Archived from the original on July 31, 2017. Retrieved February 8, 2017. New York's mass burial ground is a grassy place surrounded by the waters of Long Island Sound. By the time the city purchased the island, in 1868, there had already been nine potter's fields around Manhattan.
  19. ^ "IN THE POTTER'S FIELD.; BURYING THE CITY'S PAUPER DEAD. THE VOYAGE OF THE BODIES TO HART'S ISLAND ON THE DEAD-BOAT—FORTY THOUSAND COFFINS IN FOUR ACRES-- RATTLE HIS BONES". The New York Times. March 3, 1878. Archived from the original on April 4, 2019. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
  20. ^ a b "Islands About New-York; in the Upper Bay and in the East River". The New York Times. November 21, 1880. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on January 3, 2019. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
  21. ^ Robertson, Nan (September 22, 1958). "About New York; City's Unclaimed Dead Lie on Lonely Tip of Hart Island Off the Bronx". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on January 13, 2019. Retrieved January 13, 2019.
  22. ^ "Grand Jury Says Hart's Island Tuberculosis Ward is Unsuitable". The New York Times. November 10, 1917. p. 13. Archived from the original on July 5, 2018. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
  23. ^ "OVERCROWDING THE INSANE; NEW BUILDINGS SOON TO GIVE RELIEF TO CITY PATIENTS. How and Where These Patients Were Distributed at the Beginning of the Present Month – A Reply to the Presentment of the May Grand Jury, Showing What Those in Authority Have Been Doings to Advance the Much-Needed Work of Relief". The New York Times. December 19, 2018. Archived from the original on January 3, 2019. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
  24. ^ "Likes Life in Workhouse: Inmates Writes of 'Good Eats, No Work, and Bum Arguments'" (PDF). The New York Times. October 3, 1915. Retrieved July 4, 2018.
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Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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