Abandoned Towns
North Brother Island, a low wooded island in the East River, seen from Barretto Point Park with the Hell Gate Bridge at left and the Manhattan skyline behind

North and South Brother Islands

A former quarantine hospital in the East River between the Bronx and Rikers Island, empty since the mid-1960s and closed to the public. Neighboring South Brother lost its last house in the early 1900s; both islands are managed for wildlife.

40°48′03″N 73°53′55″W · Low river islands

Photo: RoySmith, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Closed: no public access

NYC Parks: "Access to North Brother Island is not allowed at this time." Both islands are part of the Harbor Herons Region, nesting grounds for federally and state protected wading birds, and Parks describes the former hospital buildings as dangerously dilapidated. A February 2025 revision of Untapped New York also describes access as forbidden. The agency's current page offers no public visiting arrangements. Don't land a boat on either island.

Overview

From quarantine hospital to protected island

A curved-ended hospital building in September 1943, by the Gottscho-Schleisner studio
A curved-ended hospital building in September 1943, by the Gottscho-Schleisner studio · Photo: Gottscho-Schleisner, Inc., photographer, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

North Brother Island sits in the East River between Port Morris in the Bronx and Rikers Island. Trees now hide the former hospital complex, which NYC Parks describes as 25 dangerously dilapidated buildings. Its institutional history includes a quarantine hospital, veterans' housing and a rehabilitation center. Riverside Hospital moved here from Blackwell's Island in the 1880s to quarantine smallpox, then typhoid and tuberculosis. Patients came by ferry from 138th Street, and for many, Smithsonian notes, it was a one-way trip. Its most famous patient was Mary Mallon, the cook known as Typhoid Mary, confined here from 1915 until she died on the island in 1938. In 1904 the burning steamer General Slocum beached on its shore with 1,021 dead.

The last hospital building, the Tuberculosis Pavilion, opened in 1943. Veterans and their families lived on the island after the war until the ferry commute drove them off, and from 1952 it housed a center for adolescents with drug addiction. Smithsonian dates the final departure to 1963; NYC Parks dates the center through 1964. Smithsonian reports that the city considered operations too expensive compared with mainland alternatives.

Nature took the island back. Trees have broken the sidewalks, vines hang from the windows, and the river has swallowed the road that ringed the shore. NYC Parks now runs both Brothers as a bird sanctuary in the Harbor Herons Region, and says plainly that access is not allowed. South Brother, to the south, had a brewer's summer house, which burned a century ago; the city bought it for the birds in 2007.

Timeline

Hospitals, housing and wildlife

  1. The colonial government grants both islands to James Graham. He never develops them; the currents are too dangerous.
  2. A lighthouse goes up on North Brother. This predates the hospital complex.
  3. Riverside Hospital moves to North Brother from Blackwell's Island. NYC Parks dates the hospital to 1881; Wikipedia and Smithsonian say the first building went up in 1885. The hospital quarantines smallpox, then typhoid and tuberculosis.
  4. The excursion steamer General Slocum burns in the East River and beaches on North Brother. 1,021 people die.
  5. On South Brother, brewer and Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert's summer house burns. Gothamist gives 1907, Wikipedia 1909. Nothing is built there again.
  6. Mary Mallon, "Typhoid Mary," is confined on the island from 1915 after a second outbreak is traced to her. She has a stroke in 1932 and dies here in November 1938.
  7. The hospital treats polio patients in the city's epidemic.
  8. The Tuberculosis Pavilion opens, the last building raised. NYC Parks gives 1943 as the hospital's closing year.
  9. The island houses World War II veterans and their families. Most leave by 1951, tired of commuting by ferry.
  10. A center treats adolescents with drug addiction. The accounts disagree over its closing year. Smithsonian says the last people left in 1963; NYC Parks dates the center to 1964.
  11. The city sells South Brother to Hampton Scows Inc. for $10.
  12. South Brother is bought for $2 million in federal money secured by Rep. José E. Serrano, brokered by the Trust for Public Land, and handed to NYC Parks as a wildlife sanctuary.
  13. Council Member Mark Levine visits and calls for limited access; the Council commissions a park study. Nothing comes of it.

What's left

The hospital ruins

Vine-covered brick hospital buildings and a collapsed pier, September 2006
Vine-covered brick hospital buildings and a collapsed pier, September 2006 · Photo: reivax from Washington, DC, USA, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
The ferry slip in winter, published in the photographer's January 2017 blog post; its Commons date is inconsistent
The ferry slip in winter, published in the photographer's January 2017 blog post; its Commons date is inconsistent · Photo: Julie McCoy (Kayak Cowgirl), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

NYC Parks says humans occupied North Brother for 150 years and that all 25 buildings are in extreme dilapidation. Wikipedia adds that most of the original buildings remain and some are at risk of collapse. The large Tuberculosis Pavilion was built in the Art Moderne style. Photographer Christopher Payne, who made about 30 permitted visits between 2008 and 2013, found a 1930 grammar book, a 1961 Bronx phone book, an X-ray from the pavilion and graffiti left by patients. In September, he told Smithsonian, the island "is like a jungle."

The old USGS sheets track the hospital. The 1891 Harlem sheet shows a few buildings and the lighthouse on North Brother, with Port Morris and Stony Point across the water. The 1947 sheet maps the full hospital complex, with a "round chimney" marked as a landmark for boats, and the 1956, 1966 and 1995 sheets label Riverside Hospital and draw the ferry lines across to Port Morris.

  • Riverside Hospital buildings (25)
  • Tuberculosis Pavilion (1943)
  • Ferry dock
  • Caretaker's house
  • Power plant
  • Shore road, partly washed away
USGS topographic map of North and South Brother Islands in the East River between Port Morris and Rikers Island
USGS The National Map, topo. North Brother above center, South Brother below it, Port Morris at left and part of Rikers Island at lower right.
Aerial view of the two wooded islands in the East River with boat wakes around them
Aerial imagery, same area. Trees cover both islands. A few roofs and shoreline structures remain visible on North Brother.

The other island

South Brother Island

South Brother was described as seven acres in Gothamist's 2007 purchase report; today the NYC Parks property entry lists 21.11 acres. The sources do not explain the different area figures. In the mid-1800s the city's public health official Alfred W. White used it as New York's first dump, for garbage, manure and carcasses, until the Queens County Supreme Court stopped him. Jacob Ruppert, the brewer who owned the Yankees, had a summer house here that burned in 1907 or 1909, depending on the source, and he kept the island until the late 1930s. A roofing supplier bought it in 1944 and planned cottages for his workers that were never built. In 1975 the city sold it to an investment company for $10.

In November 2007 it was bought for $2 million in federal money secured by Rep. José E. Serrano, with the Trust for Public Land brokering the deal and the Wildlife Conservation Society and The Point contributing, and handed to NYC Parks. Egrets, cormorants and black-crowned night herons nest there; the herons left North Brother by 2008 for reasons nobody has explained.

From the shore

Where to look from

You can't land, but you can see. The 2021 photo at the top of this page was taken from Barretto Point Park in Hunts Point, across the water to the northeast, with the Hell Gate Bridge in the frame. Smithsonian notes the island is also in plain view from the Bruckner Expressway (I-278) and from planes landing at LaGuardia. NYC Parks lists Barretto Point Park on Viele Avenue between Tiffany and Barretto streets. Use the park's own directions for a shore visit; this page provides no route onto the islands.

Historic maps

North and South Brother Islands on USGS maps, 1891–1995

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around North and South Brother Islands, 1891
Harlem sheet, 1891, 1:62,500 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Maps & access

Location and access

There is no public road, ferry or landing on the islands. The main point on this page is NYC Parks' mapped center of North Brother, not a landing. Wikipedia's combined-islands coordinate lies in the water between the islands. For a shore view, Barretto Point Park is on Viele Avenue between Tiffany and Barretto streets in Hunts Point. Use NYC Parks’ park page and directions. We have not verified parking or a legal viewpoint at the industrial Port Morris waterfront and do not provide driving directions there.

Google MapsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Access and safety notes

  • NYC Parks says access to North Brother is not allowed and that habitat access in the Harbor Herons Region is strictly controlled. Do not land on either island without explicit agency authorization.
  • No road connects the islands to the mainland, and this guide supplies no boat route or landing instructions.
  • For a view, use Barretto Point Park in Hunts Point, where the 2021 photo on this page was taken.
  • The winter photos on this page were taken from a kayak off the seawall. They document the shore, not an authorized landing. Their Commons records list June 2004, but the original winter trip report was published in January 2017; we do not treat that Commons date as a confirmed capture date.

Photos

The Brothers in photos

Visitor reports

Been to North and South Brother Islands?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

Nearby

Other sites near North and South Brother Islands

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our New York index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "North and South Brother Islands (New York City)", retrieved October 2026: coordinates, colonial history, the lighthouse, the hospital's diseases, Typhoid Mary, the General Slocum, the 1916 polio epidemic, the Tuberculosis Pavilion, the drug center, South Brother's dump, Ruppert, the 1944 and 1975 sales, the 2007 purchase, the herons, the 2014–2016 park talks. Its uncorroborated 2025 fire account is not used here.
  2. NYC Parks, "Visiting North Brother Island", read October 20, 2026: "Access to North Brother Island is not allowed at this time," the Harbor Herons Region, Riverside Hospital 1881–1943, veterans' housing 1946–1951, the drug center 1952–1964, 25 buildings in extreme dilapidation, protected nesting.
  3. Smithsonian, "Exploring New York City's Abandoned Island, Where Nature Has Taken Over", May 14, 2014: the 1885 hospital, the 138th Street ferry, veterans leaving by 1951, the last departure in 1963, the vines and the lost shore road, Christopher Payne's visits and finds, the view from I-278.
  4. Gothamist, "Brothers Reunited: City Buys South Brother Island", November 20, 2007: the $2 million federal purchase, Rep. Serrano, the Trust for Public Land, The Point and the Wildlife Conservation Society, seven acres, Ruppert's house burning in 1907, egrets, cormorants and night herons.
  5. USGS Harlem sheet, 1891, and Central Park sheets, 1947–1995 (in the historic maps below): the hospital buildings, lighthouse and "round chimney."
  6. NYC Parks, North Brother Island and South Brother Island, read October 20, 2026: agency map centers, park property acreages and the North Brother closure notice.
  7. Untapped New York, 10 Secrets of North Brother Island, revised February 13, 2025: the introduction explicitly says access remains forbidden; recent corroboration of the agency restriction.
  8. NYC Parks, Barretto Point Park, read October 2026: public waterfront park, address and map center.
  9. Julie McCoy, Winter Bluebird Day, January 16, 2017: original winter kayak-trip photographs and shore descriptions. Commons assigns these images June 18, 2004; that capture date is not treated as confirmed.

Photo and map credits