Everything about Hart Island New York totally explained
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.
History
In the middle of the 19th century, the island was called Lesser Minneford Island. The island was part of the property purchased by
Thomas Pell from the local
Native Americans in 1654. In 1868 New York City purchased the island from the Hunter family of the Bronx for $75,000. It is believed that British
cartographers named it "Heart Island" in 1775, due to its organ-like shape, but that the middle letter was dropped shortly thereafter.
Throughout its history, Hart Island has had a workhouse, hospital, prisons, a Civil War interment camp, a reformatory and a 'Nike missile' base. 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. Currently it serves as the city's
potter's field and is run by the New York City Department of Correction.
Prison
At various times, the
New York City Department of Correction has used the island for a prison, but it's 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.
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Cemetery
It is the location of a 101 acre
potter's field for New York City, one of the most famous such cemeteries in the
United States. In 1869, a 24-year-old woman named Louisa Van Slyke became the first person interred in the island's 45 acre graveyard. More than 750,000 dead are buried there—approximately 2,000 a year—more than half of them infants and stillborn. The potter's field is also used to dispose of amputated body parts, which are placed in boxes labeled "limbs". Ceremonies have not been conducted at the burial site since the 1950's, and no individual markers are set. In the past, burial trenches were re-used after 25-50 years, allowing for sufficient decomposition of the remains. Presently, historic buildings are being torn down to make room for new burials. The American novelist
Dawn Powell was buried here in 1970, five years after her death, when her executor refused to reclaim her remains. Academy Award winner
Bobby Driscoll was also buried here when he died in 1968 because no one was able to identify his remains when he was found dead in an East village tenement.
(External Link).
Because of the number of weekly interments made at Potter's Field and the expense to the taxpayers, these mass burials are straightforward. Those interred on Hart Island are not necessarily homeless or indigent, as hearsay has it, but people who could either not afford the expenses of private funerals or who were unclaimed by relatives. At least fifty percent of the burials are children under five who are identified and died in hospitals. Many others have families who live abroad and whose relatives search for years. Their search is made more difficult because burial records are presently kept within the prison system. A Freedom of Information Law request for 50,000 burial records was granted to Melinda Hunt on March 13, 2008. These records contain all burials from 1985-2007 except adult burials Oct. 15, 1985-April 29, 1988. A second FOIL request for these missing book(s) is being submitted to the Department of Correction.
The
New York City Department of Transportation runs a ferry service with one boat, to the island from the Fordham Street pier on City Island. Prison labor from
Rikers Island is used for burial details, paid at 50 cents an hour. Inmates stack the pine coffins in two rows, three high and 25 across, and each plot is marked with a single granite marker.
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 (2001) is set on Hart Island, but was shot in Canada. Hart Island has no individual grave markers as seen this movie.Further Information
Get more info on 'Hart Island New York'.
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