New York - NY City - Roosevelt Isl. Hospitals

Roosevelt Island, New York City - Hospitals



I'll start at the fortlike Renwick Smallpox Hospital (1892) at the far southern tip of the island. It's often referred to without the term "Smallpox," which may come in handy when the ruins are shored up and the site is reopened to the public for exploration. Amaze your friends with the trivia that James Renwick designed the southernmost and northernmost (lighthouse) structures on the island.


What remains of the interior walls of the old hospital. I was surprised to find a bathroom with intact tile.


Around to the east side of the building.


The Goldwater Memorial Hospital (1939), seen here from the Roosevelt Island Tram, makes up for being almost 50 years newer than Renwick by being gone by the time you read this - it closed in 2013 and Cornell is wiping out the whole complex to put in a new campus. No ruins here, but some interesting late-Art Deco period architecture nonetheless, dating from when it was the Welfare Hospital for Chronic Disease. There were some original details left inside, lost forever except for the exceptional work of one Charles Giraudet. He took tens of thousands of photos of the interior and, unlike me, got them all online in a short period of time. Definitely enjoy his site while this link still works and then come back here for more.


Views from the west side of the now-demolished hospital.


Views from the east side.


Moving on, the steam plant in the shadow of the Queensboro Bridge was built to serve the institutions that all moved to Roosevelt Island ("Welfare Island" for many years), and continued in service for the Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital until 2013. With the old Goldwater Hospital closing toward the south end of the island and a new Cornell facility about to take over all of that land, it just became time to construct new power sources. This one isn't quite dead yet, though, as there are plans to keep it around as a museum.


Another auxiliary building, the Strecker Memorial Lab is the last standing remnant of the City Hospital that once occupied the space between Goldwater and Renwick Hospitals. It dates to 1892 and may have been helped in its survival by being the first pathological research facility in the United States. The reason it's shiny instead of decrepit is that it was renovated into an MTA power conversion substation for the subway lines under Roosevelt Island. The windows are therefore tinted dark and I have no better access for more photos.


The island's main church is on my other page, but the Dayspring Church is on this one. Why? Because it was built as the chapel for Metropolitan Hospital in 1924, resting unused from 1955-1975 until new churches started to occupy it. Fun tidbits: It's built from rocks quarried from this island, it has always been Episcopal, it does not allow rabbits inside. The rabbits part is untrue.

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