Happy Birthday Queensboro ( fka Blackwell's Island) Bridge !

Many, certainly not all, Roosevelt Island residents know that the Queensboro Bridge, which turns 100 years old today, was once named for the island's former name "Blackwell's Island".

But few know that the bridge due to opposition to the British sounding name "Queensboro" almost did not get renamed to its curent moniker. The below article from the NY Times archive reports on a City hearing about the name change proposal and that one City Alderman did not believe those in favor of the name change had made their point.

As it is the bridge and the island have gone by many names. And many music fans outside NYC are not aware that the Simon and Garfunfle standard "The 59th Street Bridge" song is the Queensboro Bridge anyway.

To buy the above book about the Queensboro Bridge and to support the Roosevelt Island Historical Society which produced the book in conjunction with the Astoria Historical Society please link HERE.

Police Raid [Roosevelt] Island Prison

Seventy years ago this week, On March 1, 1939, Warner Brothers premiered the film "Blackwell's Island" starring John Garfield. The movie focuses on one repoprter's quest and the eventual raid made by the police upon the prison which was at that time on Blackwell's Island (later Welfare Island and now Roosevelt Island).

The NY Times review stated that it was a "sound melodrama ... and amusing, too, in a cynical way". The movie was loosely based on the actual 1934 raid that revealed widespread corruption at the prison. It was the actual 1934 raid that prompted NYC to soon after move all the inmates off Blackwell's Island into the new prison buildings built at Riker's Island abandoning Blackwell's Island where the site was later razed and upon which was built Goldwater Hospital.

Direct YouTube Link by Foxter65

Past New Year Celebrations on Roosevelt Island

As is my custom on holidays such as New Year's Eve I like to present via the archives of the New York Times a glimpse into the history of Roosevelt Island when it was still known Welfare or Blackwell's Island.

The first of the two articles presented focuses on a charitable effort to aid the poor and crippled living on then Blackwell's Island. The second provides a detailed account of individuals visiting the Island to seeloved ones unlucky enough to be confined to its hospitals or deserving of incarceration here.

Roosevelt Island’s Name Changes – A Short History

What did FDR, Marcus Garvey, and Roberto Clemente all have in common? They each had destinations re-named in their honor by NYC on July 19, 1973. In FDR’s case it was then Welfare Island which was being re-named. The Island bore the name “Welfare Island” for a mere 52 years as opposed to the Island’s prior name “Blackwell Island” which it bore for much longer. The second image below details this discontent with the name change to Welfare Island.

Los Angeles Art Show to Include Video Featuring Roosevelt Island

According to the blog The Saatchi Gallery, the Los Angeles art gallery Blum & Poe will be featuring through December 22nd an art show by Slater Bradley titled “Hope from a Dark Place.”

As per Saatchi, Mr. Bradley’s video pieces are titled "Blackwells Island" and "The Abandonments."

“The former features archival black and white film footage taken by Thomas Edison, which Bradley has re-hashed and re-interpreted. Blackwells, a spit of land in New York's East River that's now known as Roosevelt Island, once housed The New York City Insane Asylum, a penitentiary and a charity hospital. Pitch perfect subject matter for an artist known for his fascination with mentally anguished suicidal rock stars, including Ian Curtis and Kurt Cobain”

Just what we need more images of Roosevelt Island as one commenter, dblock, recently phrased “a set for horror movies”.