Feb 10, 2010 Posted on Feb 10, 2010 | 0 comments

Smallpox & Autopsies

While on our cross country trip back to New York, Fred & I took the tram across the East River to Roosevelt Island, located in the Borough of Manhattan. Known as ‘Welfare Island’ until 1973, Roosevelt Island is only two miles long, with a maximum width of 800 feet. While there, we photographed the crumbling ruin that is left of the Smallpox Hospital. Located on the southern end of Roosevelt Island, the ruins are a NYC landmark. The hospital, completed in 1856, was designed by James Renwick Jr., who also designed St. Patrick’s Cathedral & DC’s Smithsonion Institution Building. After years of being used to house patients with smallpox, the hospital was abandoned in 1950s and quickly fell into disrepair. It was a very creepy experience, one that I will never forget. I hope to post the photos from that outing one day soon here on the blog, but until then, here is a photo from Roosevelt Island Historical Society.

Oh, and if you appreciate stuff like this, check out some samples of Christopher Payne’s photographs in “Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals,” on the Lens Blog of the New York Times. Awesome photos documenting his six year, 30 state tour of more than 70 hospitals & asylums, some still operating. My favorite…the autopsy theater.

No Responses to “Smallpox & Autopsies”