Typhoid Mary’s Final Years Were Spent at This Island in New York

North Brother Island, New York

Just 20 minutes from Manhattan sits a small island most New Yorkers have never heard of. North Brother Island once housed thousands of patients, served as a drug rehab center, and witnessed one of the city’s worst disasters.

Today, it stands empty while nature slowly takes it back. Here’s what happened to New York’s forgotten island.

Building The First Light House

Ships kept crashing in the East River’s dangerous waters near North Brother Island. Congress gave $5,000 in 1829 to build a lighthouse, but the landowner Edward Ackerson wouldn’t sell his land.

Congress added another $10,000 in 1848. The government finally bought land on the south end in 1868, and the lighthouse opened in 1869 as the island’s first real building.

Riverside Hospital Opens

New York City’s growing population made a health crisis in the 1880s. City leaders needed somewhere to keep sick patients away from Manhattan’s crowded neighborhoods.

To solve this, they moved Riverside Hospital from Blackwell’s Island to North Brother Island in 1881. The hospital opened in 1885, first treating smallpox, then typhoid fever and tuberculosis.

Workers built a fence in 1883 to keep the lighthouse separate from the hospital.

Typhoid Mary Lives Alone

Mary Mallon worked as a cook in rich homes, spreading typhoid fever without knowing it.

Health workers found that several outbreaks came from Mallon in 1907, making her America’s first known healthy typhoid carrier. City leaders put her on North Brother Island in a house built just for her.

They let her go in 1910 after she promised never to cook again, but Mallon broke her promise and caused more outbreaks. Brought back in 1915, she lived there until 1938. A stroke in 1932 left her unable to move, and she died of lung disease after 26 years alone.

When The General Slocum Burned

On June 15, 1904, about 1,300 German Americans from Manhattan got on the steamboat General Slocum for their church picnic. Most were women and children going for a fun day.

Fire started ten minutes after leaving in a storage room with hay, oil, and rags. The ship’s old fire hoses broke when used. Rotten life jackets didn’t float, pulling victims underwater.

Captain William Van Schaick steered the burning boat toward North Brother Island, running it onto shore 25 feet from land. Hospital workers made human chains to save people. Still, 1,021 died in New York’s worst disaster before 9/11.

The Last Building Goes Up

The Tuberculosis Pavilion opened in 1943 as the island’s final big building.

Before modern medicine, tuberculosis patients needed rest, fresh air, and to stay away from healthy people. The pavilion had large porches where patients could breathe fresh air as treatment.

However, TB shots became common after 1945, making the building useless within ten years. Riverside Hospital closed in 1942-1943. Today, the pavilion is one of the few buildings still standing strong.

Veterans Find Homes

After World War II, returning soldiers couldn’t find places to live. From 1946 to 1951, North Brother Island housed veterans and their families while the men went to college with help from the government.

A Failed Drug Treatment Center

Between 1952 and 1964, North Brother Island ran America’s first complete treatment center for teenage drug addicts. The facility promised medical treatment, education, and job training.

Unfortunately, the treatment methods showed poor understanding of addiction at the time. Staff locked heroin users in rooms until withdrawal ended, and some patients said they were held against their will.

Staff corruption and high costs eventually forced it to close in 1963. The facility reportedly inspired the Broadway play “Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?”, which launched Al Pacino’s career.

Nature Takes Over

North Brother Island stood empty after 1963 and nature quickly moved in. Vines covered entire buildings while trees grew through floors and roofs. Plant roots slowly broke apart brick walls, turning medical spaces into green ruins.

Protecting Birds Instead Of People

The New York City Parks Department made North Brother Island a bird sanctuary in 2001.

Black-crowned night herons, easy to spot by their black caps and gray wings, built large nesting groups from the 1980s through early 2000s.

Now barn swallows nest in empty buildings and fly overhead. South Brother Island, bought in 2007, supports double-crested cormorants and snowy egrets.

North Brother Island Today

Public access to North Brother Island remains strictly prohibited except for researchers and journalists with special permits.

Any approved visitors currently must be escorted by NYC Parks staff and must hire their own boat transportation as no public service runs to North Brother Island.

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