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roosevelt island

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The Roosevelt Island Lighthouse, or The Blackwell Island Light, NYC

A look at the mysterious Gothic lighthouse that stands at the tip of New York City’s Roosevelt Island. Did a lunatic named Thomas Maxey build the lighthouse? If so, why did a now-missing stone say that an unknown person named John McCarthy built it? Or was it designed by

The Roosevelt Island Lighthouse, or The Blackwell Island Light, NYC
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A Victorian Lunatic's Fort: Fort Maxey, Blackwell's Island, NYC

In the mid-19th century, Thomas Maxey, a patient at the New York Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island, built Fort Maxey, a strange structure complete with cannons, a garden of tall flowers, and mysterious carvings. The infamous New York Lunatic Asylum has its share of chilling stories. But one odd,

A Victorian Lunatic's Fort: Fort Maxey, Blackwell's Island, NYC
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The Renwick Ruin and Charity Hospital, Roosevelt Island, NYC - Part 2

We return to Blackwell’s Island to look at the now-destroyed Charity Hospital and the Renwick Ruin as it stands on today’s Roosevelt Island. In part two of our two-part look at the Smallpox Hospital / Renwick Ruin, we talk about the Gothic ruin of the Smallpox Hospital that remains

The Renwick Ruin and Charity Hospital, Roosevelt Island, NYC - Part 2
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The Smallpox Hospital, aka Renwick Ruin, on Roosevelt Island, NYC - Part 1

We take a look at the ruins of a forgotten Gothic hospital on Roosevelt Island in New York City A crumbling ruin is all that’s left of the old Smallpox Hospital that used to operate on Roosevelt Island, an island that lies between Manhattan and Queens in New York

The Smallpox Hospital, aka Renwick Ruin, on Roosevelt Island, NYC - Part 1