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Thursday, Feb 02 2012 3PM 8°F  6PM 16°F  5-Day Forecast

 

Inside the lost island of New York: Eerie pictures of theabandoned leper colony just 350 yards from the BronxBy LIZ HAZELTON 

Last updated at 8:46 AM on 2nd February 2012

Stairwells strewn with debris and walls crumbling slowly to dust, it is the island that New York forgot for 50 years.

Now, in a series of extraordinarily eerie pictures, the lost world of North Brother - quarantine zone, leper colony and centre for drugaddicts - has been brought back to life.

It is hard to believe that these echoing corridors and abandoned halls were home to hundreds of patients - or that a criss-cross oftree-lined avenues were once roads.

But the haunting quality of these pictures makes it easy to imagine that it was a place of indescribable misery, which one inmatecompared to the notorious black hole of Calcutta.

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8/3/2019 Eerie Pictures of the Abandoned Leper Colony Just 350 Yards From the Bronx

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Lost world: An iron spiral staircase shoots up through crumbling floorboards at the hospital (left). The main staircase in the westernwing of the nurses building (right) is littered with leaves and crumbling debris

Eerie: The skeletal remains of chairs lie on the floor in a small auditorium in the school and services building

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Snowbound: The window has fallen out of the wall in this science classroom in the school (left) while tiles cling to a long-abandonedbathtub (right), one of two in the western wing of the tuberculosis pavilion

Misplaced: The altarpiece from the chapel was moved to a maintenance building before the island was abandoned where it still sits on atable

TYPHOID MARY, THE WOMANWHO MADE MEDICAL HISTORY 

Mary Mallon (above, right) was the mostinfamous patient at North Brother Islandwhere she spent nearly three decades ofher life.

Despite being healthy, she was a carrierof the typhoid virus – and is believed tohave been responsible for 43 infectionsand three deaths.

Just 350 yards from the crowded tenements of the Bronx, North Brother Island was firstemployed as a quarantine centre in 1885.

It was soon a home to six lepers. Its most notorious resident was 'Typhoid Mary' - thefirst healthy carrier of any disease ever to be identified - who spent years confined inits bleak woods.

North Brother Island was also witness to America's worst disaster until the 9/11 attacks -the 1904 fire onboard the passenger ship, General Slocum which killed 1,021 people,mainly women and children on a church outing.

Closed in 1963, it is now a haunting labyrinth of crumbling ruins.Protected birds are itsonly inhabitants and the waters around the island are patrolled by armed coastguardswho ensure the sanctity of the former quarantine zone is never violated

Meanwhile, the hospital, staff and patient quarters and forced drug rehabilitationcentres are slowly reverting to nature.

These pictures were taken by local historian and photographer Ian Ference who wasgiven unprecedented access to the site. He has slowly pieced together the forgottenstory of this unique landscape.

'This has got to be one of America's most important places to visit,' he said. 'Historicallyit has had a notorious and sometimes sinister reputation.

'It was established as a forced quarantine camp for people suffering from infectiousand often fatal diseases such as typhoid, scarlet fever, yellow fever and typhus. Therewere six people suffering from leprosy confined here in wooden huts. 

More...

l See more from photographer Ian Ference, who captured these images 

'New York was taking in a huge number of immigrants in the late nineteenth and earthtwentieth centuries - and new arrivals were forced to live in crowded and unsanitaryconditions.

'Diseases would inevitably spread and once the health authorities identified a person ashaving a communicable disease they were seized and forced to live on North Brother

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‘Typhoid’ Mary, an Irish immigrant whoemigrated to the U.S. in 1884, worked asa cook from 1900 to 1907.

She was first identified as a carrier bymedical researcher George Soper, whoconcluded she was responsible for aspate of infections linked to where shelived and worked.

But she refused to listen to him. Instead,the city intervened after Soper publishedhis findings, and his subject was forciblyincarcerated on North Brother from 1907

to 1910.

Typhoid Mary fought for three years tobe released, claiming she was beingpersecuted by the authorities.

She was finally set free on the provisoshe would stop working as a cook.

But Mary Mallon promptly changed hername and broke her pledge, leading toher return to the island in 1915.

She was to stay there, living in her owncottage, until her death in 1938.

When doctors carried out a post-mortem, they found live typhoid culturesin her body.

Island - unless they were rich enough to afford a private clinic.

'Conditions were bad - the mortality rate among patients was high and the recovery ratelow.

'There was no telephony in those early days so once people were grabbed and takenthere - they were often never heard from again by their families.'

The island is officially only open to a select few bird experts, who have a particularinterest in its colony of black-crowned night herons, and city patrol officers - though anumber of bloggers have detailed illicit trips to its shores.

Mr Ference has been given special dispensation to document its secrets.

'I've been aware of the history of the island since the 1990s but only began seriouslystudying the history in 2003,' he said. 'I decided I wanted to go and see the place

myself.

'In 2008, I managed to get NYC park's department permission to shoot the island. I'vevisited around 15 times since then, documenting what remains and the process ofdecay.

'I'm truly fortunate to have been given this exclusive access to one of America's mostsignificant forbidden places.'

North Brother Island is situated in the Hell Gate, a treacherous section of the East Riverbetween The Bronx and Riker’s Island.

Its first inhabitants were those unfortunate patients with communicable diseases suchas smallpox, tuberculosis, scarlet fever and diphtheria, who were forcibly removed fromthe city’s teeming streets.

Living conditions were primitive, a hotch-potch of pavilions, tents and cottages flung uparound the central Riverside Hospital.

When bad weather stopped ferries from running there were food shortages and inwinter, frequently little heat. Incarceration on North Brother was often a death sentence.Those who did return from its shores spoke of a hellish environment like ‘the black holeof Calcutta.’

With the dawn of the 20th century, city authorities made a desperate attempt to clean up North Brother with better buildings andimproved care.

The island was now mainly a home for tuberculosis patients – and for those suffering from venereal disease.

In 1942, it closed for the first time before being used to house World War Two veterans who were studying in the city.

But this idea was quickly abandoned. In 1952, it underwent its final transformation, hosting an experimental programme to treatjuvenile drug addicts. When this, too, failed, the North Brother was left to the ravages of time.

Back to nature: The main road running north to south through the island is hidden below a thick layer of undergrowth. To the right are

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the nurses' residence and doctors' cottage and to the left are the maintenance building and tennis courts

The first floor of the tuberculosis pavilion contained a fully functional medical facility, including three x-ray stations (left): Each dormitoryroom inside the nurses' building contained a small sink and shelving unit (right)

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Wilderness: The island is still off limits and is inhabited only by birds since it was closed in 1963

Ghost town: A road leads between the morgue to the right and the physical plant and coal house to the left (left) while in the boys'dormitory most of the books were cast-offs from Queens Public Library

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Home: The accommodation for medical staff was limited, including this physician's bedroom inside the doctors' cottage

Ravages of time: In many places, including the nurses' building (left), the floor is thick with rubble. However, in a third floor of thenorthern wing of the doctors' building, a room is surprisingly intact

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Workhouse: Heavy-duty machinery was left to rot inside the maintenance building when the island was abandoned in 1963

Overgrown: The front of the tuberculosis building can be glimpsed through a tangle of bushes and trees

Relic: The examination table in the morgue was left behind. Other pieces of equipment, including the autopsy table, have been removed

8/3/2019 Eerie Pictures of the Abandoned Leper Colony Just 350 Yards From the Bronx

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Day-to-day life: A stores ledger lies open on the last entry in the physicians' cottage (left) while the facade of the building which oncehoused the colony's nurses is almost covered by foliage

Fit for purpose: The gymnasium was added to the school and services building in the 1950s in the hopes that athleticism could helpovercome addiction

8/3/2019 Eerie Pictures of the Abandoned Leper Colony Just 350 Yards From the Bronx

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Reduced to rubble: The facade of the doctors cottage is slowly crumbling away. Much of the interior has already collapsed

Power source: A view of the coal house where much of the roof is gone and fallen rafters are strewn across the floor

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As it was: North Brother Island circa 1937

This picture from 1943 shows the manicured grounds and a gleaming building

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Secluded: Despite being in the middle of New York, North Brother Island has remained sealed off from the world

 

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Rosbif, Yorkshire pudding. Elf n´safety would forbid it.

- EngNor, Oslo, Norway., 02/2/2012

11:44

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If only the walls could talk this would make very fascinating reading. I love anything like this.

- Mary++++, Uk+, 02/2/2012 11:40

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12

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They should leave Alcatraz to go the same way. It shouldnt be open to paying vistors

- AJB, Essex, UK, 02/2/2012 11:28

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They didn't mention the last four residents who were gamblers, that were found there years later. They were unable to get out after a game of poker,

as they all threw in their hands.- Dave , Hastings, East Sussex,

England, 02/2/2012 11:24

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2

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The Pompeii of New York. It's incredibly sad and hauntingly beautiful - protect it from looters and leave it to Nature...

- Georgie, Winchester, 02/2/2012

11:10

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Beautiful pics and an interesting glimpse of the past. Quite fascinating. The lives of those sent there must have been sad, yet, in its time it was modern,and at least some attempt at treatment offered.

- Dawn, Cyprus, 02/2/2012 11:08

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My goodness, looks just like the setting for 'Silent Hill' .......!

- Snoopy, Barnsley, S.Yorks,

02/2/2012 10:59

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id love to read more about this place, i was hooked reading about the leper colony spinalonga off the coast of Crete.

- kay, south shields, 02/2/2012 10:25

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Any of you Yanks know if this Island was featured on Life After People? - Frankie, Belfast, 01/2/2012 21:02 Yes it was but i thought that they said it wasa TB hospital.

- Surprised?, World, 02/2/2012 08:54

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Place is full of lead paint, walls and celiing are asbestos. Doesnt even look safe to walk around, old lead paint is turning into powder airborn. BigGovernment job there.

- karen kessler, kailua kona hawaii,

01/2/2012 22:59

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