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Arts & Entertainment

21 Photos Of North Brother Island When It Was Inhabited


By

Jen Carlson

Published Oct 17, 2012

Modified Oct 17, 2012


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"P.S.619 Home Economics Lab, where patients learn short-order cooking and baking. North Brother Island, 1953."

 

Courtesy of the Municipal Archives

View all 21


By

Jen Carlson

Published Oct 17, 2012

Modified Oct 17, 2012


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We have a little obsession with North Brother Island over here, which is located just off shore from the Bronx in the Hell Gate section of the East River. We've looked at the former home of Typhoid Mary in its current state of decaying beauty, but what did it look like when it was inhabited? Click through for a look back—these are mostly from the 1950s, when the isalnd was home to an experimental drug treatment program, which was mired in staff corruption as well as beliefs that patients were being held against their will.

Previously: North Brother Island in 1890, through the lens of Jacob Riis.

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Jen Carlson

Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


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