Hart Island, New York

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Hart Island, sometimes referred to as Hart's Island is a small island in New York City at the western end of Long Island Sound. It is approximately a mile long and one quarter of a mile wide and located to the northeast of City Island in the Pelham Islands group. The island is the easternmost part of the borough of the Bronx.

In the middle of the 19th century, the island was called Lesser Minneford Island. The island was part of the 9,166 acre property purchased by Thomas Pell from the local Native Americans in 1654.^[1] In 1868 New York City purchased the island from the Hunter family of the Bronx for $75,000.^[2]

The origin of the current name is obscure. One urban legend claims that a woman named Mrs. Hart, a childless widow, inherited Lesser Minneford Island and donated it to the City of New York or the county and the island was renamed after her.^{[citation needed]} The island's land area is 0.531 km² (0.205 sq mi, or 131.22 acres) and had no permanent population as of the 2000 census.

1 Prison and potter's field
2 Missiles
3 Poor House
4 Tours
5 Popular culture
6 References
7 Sources
8 See also
9 External links
- 9.1 Missile Base

[edit] Prison and potter's field

At various times, the New York City Department of Correction has used the island for a prison, but it is currently uninhabited.

Hart Island was a prisoner of war camp for four months in 1865. 3,413 captured Confederate soldiers were housed. 235 died. Their remains were relocated to Cypress Hills Cemetery, Brooklyn in 1941. [1]

It is the location of a 45-acre potter's field for New York City, one of the most famous such cemeteries in the United States.^[2] Approximately 750,000 dead are buried there, approximately 8,000 a year, many of them infants and stillborn.^[2] The dead are buried in trenches dug by prison inmates. Babies are placed in coffins the size of shoeboxes, and are stacked five coffins high and twenty coffins across. Adults are placed in cardboard cartons costing $54, and are stacked three coffins high and two coffins across. The potter's field is also used to dispose of amputated body parts, which are placed in boxes labeled "refuse".^[2] No ceremony is conducted at the burial, and no individual markers are set. Land is currently reused after forty years have passed, allowing for sufficient decomposition of the remains. The American novelist Dawn Powell was buried here in 1970, five years after her death, when her executor refused to reclaim her remains.

The Department of Corrections runs a ferry to the island from the Fordham Street pier on City Island; prison labor is used for burial details.

The first AIDs victim from New York City is buried on Hart Island.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Missiles

In addition to the potters field, the island has a tall white Peace monument at the north end and defunct Nike Ajax missile silos nearby that were once part of the United States Army base Fort Slocum from 1955-1961, which was also located on Davids Island. The tall white monument is a peace monument erected by New York City prison inmates for the unnamed dead and was built before the missile base was installed.

[edit] Poor House

In the 19th century the island was the location of an almshouse. There is a small section of old houses dating back to the American Civil War that have fallen into disrepair. The island also contains the remains of the old debtor's prison and Phoenix House, a drug rehabilitation facility.

[edit] Tours

Hart Island and the pier on Fordham Street on City Island are restricted areas, with trespassing punishable by a fine of $600 and a year in prison.

The New York City Department Of Corrections has guided tours of the island about every five years or so at local residents' requests. Visitors are allowed to see the outside of the missile silos and Peace Monument nearby and see the ruined buildings, some that date back to the 1850s. There are new proposals to turn the Nike Ajax missile silos and abandoned complex into a museum with guided tours and gift shop.^{[citation needed]} This would bring more tourist dollars to City Island and the Bronx.

[edit] Popular culture

Most of the horror movie Island of the Dead (2000) takes place on Hart Island
The finale for the movie Don't Say a Word takes place on Hart Island

[edit] References

^ A Short Genealogy of Hart Island, accessed November 5, 2006
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die by Michael Largo. HarperCollins Publishers, New York City: 2006. ISBN-13: 978-0-7394-7539-3. pages 407-408.