Roosevelt Island |  A Historic Hidden Gem

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Roosevelt Island just isn’t as properly generally known as Manhattan solely as a result of most individuals keep in Manhattan and do not enterprise out additional. It is a nice disgrace as a result of Roosevelt Island is a incredible and historic hidden gem that’s underrated.

map of Roosevelt Island

Our household journey to NYC was nothing wanting enjoyable, however on the finish of the day it was good to come back again to a quiet place the place it felt like residence. We stayed on the Graduate Roosevelt Island, which is a hip & fashionable lodge located subsequent door to the Cornell Tech campus. It’s the solely lodge on the island and is pretty new.

Queensboro bridge & tramway

If you’re staying on Roosevelt Island or simply wish to go to, the Roosevelt Island Tramway is the most effective, in my view, and most scenic path to go. It’s nearly 7 minutes away from Manhattan. Nonetheless, you may as well take the subway.

Many motion pictures have been shot in or round Roosevelt Island. One of many newest motion pictures is “Spider-Man No Means Residence.” The flats simply over the Queensboro Bridge, the bridge itself, and the Tramway have been featured.

Queensboro Bridge
Day view of Queensboro Bridge

Queensboro Bridge is completely gorgeous at any time of the day or evening!

Queensboro Bridge at dusk
Nightfall view of Queensboro Bridge
Queensboro Bridge at dusk
Night time view of Queensboro Bridge

A little bit of historical past a historic hidden gem

The island truly has quite a bit to supply and that’s the reason I name it a hidden gem. Roosevelt Island was once referred to as Blackwell Island. It’s a historic hidden gem as a result of it holds a lot darkish historical past that individuals ought to truly find out about. We will study quite a bit about its historical past. It was once an island the place they threw folks with psychological well being issues into lunatic asylums. They even threw individuals who they did not know diagnoses for, like autism and dementia. It was a tragic interval in time, however we now have come a good distance from then. The island additionally had prisons and low price neighborhood housing. It was mainly a spot to retailer the undesirable: the criminals, poor, disabled and sick folks. To get the complete particulars on all of this historical past go to the Nationwide Park Service web site.

Lighthouse & film a historic hidden gem

To get a glimpse of how all of this went down, there’s a historic fiction perspective of a lady named Nellie Bly that lived by means of this horror in a film that’s obtainable on You Tube referred to as “Escaping the Insanity.” I watched it and it was very eye-opening!

Nellie Bly info at Roosevelt Island

On the north finish of the island are commemorative writings and statues of Nellie Bly together with the lighthouse.

Bronze face Nellie Bly
Roosevelt Island lighthouse
north end of Roosevelt Island
The sting of the north finish of the island

Lunatic asylum as we speak generally known as Octagon Tower a historic hidden gem

The lunatic asylum as we speak is now a stupendous condominium constructing named the Octagon Tower. The staircase is the unique design! Contained in the foyer are images of what it was once and is price a go to.

Octagon Tower on Roosevelt Island, NY
Lunatic asylum that is now Octagon Tower on Roosevelt Island

Free buses on the island

By the best way, one of the simplest ways to get across the island is to take the crimson public bus that’s free for residents and vacationers. It has many hop on/hop off stops about each quarter-hour. This was such a terrific service for us. The island is walkable, however after lengthy days in Manhattan, we have been very appreciative to have this!

Roosevelt Island bus sign

Blackwell home a historic hidden gem

The Blackwell home was the spotlight of our Roosevelt Island exploration! It really is a historic hidden gem! We had a incredible tour information of the home and SO a lot historical past of the island! He was very educated and took his time with us.

Smallpox hospital sign at Roosevelt Island - a historical hidden gem
back side of Blackwell house on Roosevelt Island, NY
Despite the fact that this appears to be like just like the entrance with the signal, that is truly the again of the home.
Front side of Blackwell house on Roosevelt Island, NY
Entrance facet of the Blackwell home

Island life

We did go to throughout Christmastime and the island was superbly adorned. It truly jogged my memory of a Hallmark Christmas film!

city ​​photo of Christmas at Roosevelt Island
Christmas tree at Roosevelt Island
My favourite Christmas window I noticed!

There are various locations to seize a drink and eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner. We truly ate twice at a restaurant that we, sadly, forgot to take images of. Our first meal, as soon as we settled in to our lodge, was there and our final meal earlier than leaving NY. It was scrumptious! The restaurant was Granny Annie’s.

There may be additionally a Subway and a Starbucks on the island, in addition to just a few different eating places.

One different restaurant we additionally loved was Nisi Kitchen. They’ve a HUGE menu choice! Their meals was additionally scrumptious. We ordered an appetizer and I ordered the Rueben sandwich which was open-faced. I’ve by no means seen an open-faced Rueben sandwich earlier than.

outdoor photo of Nisi Kitchen on Roosevelt Island

Smallpox hospital a historic hidden gem

This was the primary main hospital within the US to deal with these with the smallpox illness. These ruins of the hospital can also be the place that the climax scene from Spider-Man vs Inexperienced Goblin is ready. It’s truly a extremely cool place to go to. You will not be capable of go inside as a result of it is rather dilapidated and it’s surrounded by a fence.