Now a popular day getaway, Roosevelt Island was once notorious for holding the dregs of society in some of the city’s first modern medical and correctional facilities. In fact, the island was called Welfare Island before it was renamed in 1972 to honor Franklin Roosevelt. For two and a half century before that, it was known as Blackwell’s Island, the namesake of the family who owned it for many generations. They were descendants of the English captain who seized it from the Dutch in the late 1700s. The Dutch, who called it Hog Island because they raised pigs on it, bought it in 1637 from the Lenape tribe who gave it its first name: Minnahanonck or “nice island.” It’s a name that rings true today for the quiet residential neighborhood. Peppered throughout the island are remnants of its grim history. 500 feet north of the train station stands the Blackwell ancestral home, the sixth oldest house in the city. In the south, the gothic ruins were once the Smallpox Hospital, the first to treat contagious diseases. In the north, The Octagon apartments’ lobby was previously the entrance of the New York Lunatic Asylum, the country’s first mental institution. The 50-foot lighthouse at the northernmost tip was built in 1872 by asylum inmates with stone quarried locally.
In 1969, the city granted a 99-year lease of the island to the state of New York’s Urban Development Corporation (UDC) to develop and operate the island. It was soon transformed into an innovative, mixed income, traffic-limited, and sustainable residential community. Designed with the many disabled and elderly residents in mind, the whole island is wheelchair accessible. Along with Disneyland, the island is well-known for its use of Automatic Vacuum Waste Collection (AVAC) system that transports waste at high speeds through underground tubes to be sorted and cleared. Furthermore, The Octagon is the first residential complex in the city to be powered by fuel cells, which converts natural gas to electricity and heat via a combustion-free, electrochemical process. Because of the island’s proximity to the United Nations headquarters, U.N. employees make up 30 to 40 percent of the island’s population. Former Secretary-General Kofi Annan used to lived at 575 Main Street. Roosevelt island is, however, best known and cherished for its red aerial tram, which appears in the epic 2002 film, Spider-Man. The Roosevelt Island Tramway has transported over 26 million riders since it began operating in 1976 as a temporary solution while the subway was being build. Until 1984, it was the only commuter aerial transportation in North America.
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