Hart Island

Hart Island

Company type	Public land / Cemetery site
Industry	Public service, burial ground
Founded	1864
Headquarters	Bronx, New York City , United States
Area served	New York City
Products	Potter's field burials, public service facilities (historical)

Hart Island, also referred to as Hart's Island, is situated at the western edge of Long Island Sound within the northeastern section of the Bronx, New York City. Stretching approximately 1.5 miles in length and 0.25 miles in width, it forms part of the Pelham Islands group, lying to the east of City Island.

Originally designated in 1864 as a training site for the United States Colored Troops, Hart Island has fulfilled a variety of public service roles over time: it has functioned as a Union Civil War prison camp, a psychiatric hospital, a tuberculosis sanatorium, a potter's field for both individual and mass interments, a homeless shelter, a boys' reformatory and workhouse, a jail, and a drug treatment facility. Numerous proposed projects, such as an amusement park, were planned but never came to fruition. During the Cold War era, the island hosted Nike missile installations. The facility operated sporadically as a prison and homeless shelter until 1967; the final residential structures were abandoned by 1977. Up until 2019, management of the potter's field was under the New York City Department of Correction, after which control was transferred to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

Over one million people have been interred on Hart Island, predominantly those unclaimed by relatives, homeless individuals, impoverished persons, and casualties from widespread disease outbreaks. The annual number of burials has decreased to fewer than 1,500 in recent times. Historically, access was restricted by the Department of Correction with limited ferry operations and stringent visitation policies. Burial duties were carried out by inmates from nearby Rikers Island until 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The Hart Island Project, initiated by artist Melinda Hunt, campaigns for enhanced access and greater transparency regarding burial documentation. The 2019 transition to Parks Department oversight—long advocated by supporters—was intended to improve public accessibility while maintaining potter's field functions.

Toponymy

Multiple explanations exist concerning the origin of the island's name. One account proposes that British mapmakers labeled it "Heart Island" in 1775 due to its resemblance to a heart-shaped organ, with the 'e' subsequently omitted. Maps from 1777 and other periods refer to it as "Hart Island". Additional 18th-century designations included "Little Minneford Island" and "Spectacle Island", names inspired by its form.

An alternative interpretation connects the name to "hart," meaning "stag," suggesting its historical role as a game preserve or reflecting deer migration from the mainland during times when ice covered the water.

Geography

Hart Island extends roughly 1.5 miles in length and reaches up to 0.25 miles at its broadest section, positioned about half a mile east of City Island’s shoreline. Its total area is reported variably among sources as either 101 or 131 acres. The island remains isolated without electrical infrastructure and is accessible solely via ferry transportation.

Early Period

Prior to European settlement, the Siwanoy tribe of Native Americans inhabited Hart Island. In 1654, English doctor Thomas Pell acquired the island from the Siwanoy as part of a larger land purchase. Following Pell’s death in 1669, ownership transferred to his nephew, Sir John Pell. The Pell family retained possession until 1774, when Oliver De Lancey purchased it; subsequently, the Rodman, Haight, and Hunter families became owners. By the early 1800s, Hart Island gained recognition for hosting bare-knuckle boxing matches that drew large crowds.

Hart Island’s initial public function was as a training ground for the 31st Infantry Regiment of the United States Colored Troops beginning in 1864. Recruits were transported from Manhattan’s Battery via the steamboat John Romer. The island featured a commandant’s residence and barracks equipped with a library and concert hall, accommodating between 2,000 and 3,000 soldiers at once. Throughout its use, over 50,000 men underwent training there.

In November 1864, construction commenced on a prisoner-of-war camp designed to hold up to 5,000 detainees. This facility operated for four months during the Civil War, housing 3,413 Confederate captives; 235 died and were interred at Cypress Hills Cemetery. After the war, indigent veterans were buried in designated soldiers’ plots separate from the potter’s field; some remains were later moved to West Farms Soldiers Cemetery and Cypress Hills Cemetery.

Establishment of Cemetery

The earliest interments on Hart Island were twenty Union soldiers during the Civil War. On May 27, 1868, New York City acquired the island for $75,000 from Edward Hunter, who also owned nearby Hunter Island. Burials by the city commenced shortly thereafter. In 1869, Louisa Van Slyke—a 24-year-old who passed away at Charity Hospital—became the first individual laid to rest in the island’s public burial ground. This cemetery became commonly referred to as "City Cemetery" or "Potter's Field."

By 1880, The New York Times likened Hart Island to "the Green-Wood of Five Points," drawing parallels with Brooklyn’s large cemetery serving a historically impoverished Manhattan district. The article mentioned that crude pine coffins from hospitals on Blackwell’s Island (now Roosevelt Island) were brought here for burial. Hart Island's potter’s field succeeded earlier burial grounds located where Washington Square Park and the New York Public Library Main Branch now stand. By 1958, more than half a million burials had taken place on Hart Island.

Concurrent Functions

During the yellow fever outbreak of 1870, Hart Island functioned as a quarantine station. At that time, it housed The Pavilion—a women’s psychiatric hospital established in 1885—and a tuberculosis sanatorium. Additionally, an industrial school with an enrollment of approximately 300 students operated on the island. Following an 1892 inquiry into overcrowded city asylums, plans were made to expand Hart Island’s capacity from 1,100 to 1,500 beds.

In the late nineteenth century, Hart Island became home to a boys’ workhouse as part of an extension of Blackwell Island’s prison and almshouse system. A men’s workhouse opened in 1895; a decade later, one for boys was established. By the early twentieth century, roughly 2,000 delinquent boys and elderly male inmates from Blackwell’s penitentiary were housed on Hart Island. The prison developed its own band and Catholic chapel; construction of the $60,000 chapel began with its cornerstone laid in 1931 and it opened in 1932.

In 1924, John Hunter sold a portion of land on Hart Island's west side to Solomon Riley—a wealthy real estate investor from Barbados. Riley planned to create an amusement park catering to Harlem’s predominantly African American population—dubbed the "Negro Coney Island"—since black visitors were excluded from Rye Playland and Dobbs Ferry parks nearby. He initiated construction of a dance hall, boardinghouses, and a boardwalk while acquiring sixty steamboats for park operations. However, state authorities raised concerns about its proximity to jail and hospital facilities; consequently, the city condemned the property in 1925. Riley subsequently received $144,000 as compensation for the land seizure.

Post-World War II Developments

Throughout World War II, the inmate population from Hart Island was transferred to Rikers Island, while the island's former workhouse was repurposed as a disciplinary facility for the United States Armed Forces. Overcrowding quickly became an issue at Rikers Island. Following the war, the New York City Department of Correction resumed operations on Hart Island as a correctional institution, despite its inadequate infrastructure. In 1950, the New York City Board of Estimate authorized the construction of a shelter for up to 2,000 homeless individuals, which functioned from 1951 until 1954 and also accommodated those struggling with alcoholism. This development faced opposition from residents of nearby City Island. After the shelter's closure, control reverted to the Department of Correction, which inaugurated an alcoholism rehabilitation center in 1955 alongside a courthouse dedicated to cases involving homeless persons. At that time, the island housed between 1,200 and 1,800 inmates serving brief sentences ranging from ten days to two years.

In 1956, Hart Island was adapted to include subterranean Nike Ajax missile installations (Battery NY-15), managed by the army’s 66th Antiaircraft Artillery Missile Battalion as part of Fort Slocum until operations ceased in 1961; these missile sites were fully decommissioned by 1974.

A new $7 million workhouse project aimed at replacing outdated facilities was announced in 1959. The following year saw the opening of Kratter Field baseball stadium within the prison grounds, named after entrepreneur Marvin Kratter, who contributed 2,200 seats salvaged from the demolished Ebbets Field. Over subsequent decades, these seats deteriorated and were eventually redistributed by the year 2000.

The prison ceased operations in 1966 due to revisions in penal regulations. A drug treatment facility known as Phoenix House was proposed and launched in 1967, expanding swiftly to accommodate 350 residents and hosting large-scale events including festivals and baseball matches against teams such as those sponsored by NBC. After ferry access was discontinued in 1977, Phoenix House relocated to Manhattan.

Later redevelopment plans did not come to fruition: a 1972 proposal to transform the island into a residential resort was abandoned; in 1982, Mayor Ed Koch initiated a workhouse for misdemeanants that failed to attract inmates; and a 1988 plan for a combined homeless shelter and workhouse was withdrawn amid opposition from City Island locals.

Cemetery Usage and Structural Decline

Initially, City Cemetery occupied areas on both the northern and southern extremities of Hart Island, leaving the central portion suitable for habitation. In 1985, sixteen individuals who succumbed to AIDS were interred in deep graves at the island’s southern tip due to concerns about disease transmission. Among them is an unidentified infant marked by a distinctive concrete gravestone inscribed with SC (special case) B1 (Baby 1) 1985. Since that time, thousands who died from AIDS have been buried on Hart Island, although precise figures remain unknown.

Between 1991 and 1993, artist Melinda Hunt and photographer Joel Sternfeld conducted extensive documentation of Hart Island for their book published in 1998. In 1994, Hunt established the Hart Island Project to support families of those laid to rest there. The island’s history and personal narratives of those interred are further explored in the 2018 documentary One Million American Dreams.

Prior to demolition efforts in 2022, remnants of aged wooden residences and masonry institutional buildings dating back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries stood in a state of neglect. Military barracks from the Civil War era predated subsequent workhouse and hospital structures on the site.

During the late 2010s, both the Hart Island Project and City Island Historical Society campaigned for Hart Island’s inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation recognized it as a "site of historical significance" in 2016 after determining it met most NRHP criteria. The island experienced significant shoreline erosion during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, which exposed numerous skeletal remains. In response, city officials announced plans for shoreline restoration funded by a $13.2 million federal grant awarded in 2015; following delays, restoration work commenced in late 2019.

Management Transfer to NYC Parks

In December 2019, jurisdiction over the island was transferred to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks). Despite this change, burials in the Potters' Field continued, carried out by contractors hired by the city. In June 2021, an emergency demolition order was issued by the New York City Department of Buildings for eighteen buildings in severe disrepair. Sixteen of these structures had been recommended for demolition in a March 2020 assessment, although some were deemed potentially salvageable. Subsequently, in October 2021, the New York City Department of Social Services awarded a $3.3 million contract to JPL Industries to carry out the demolitions.

By March 2023, officials revealed intentions to open the island to the public within that year and approved a memorial to honor those interred there. At that point, demolition had removed 15 of the island’s 19 buildings. NYC Parks emphasized its objective to enhance safety for cemetery visitors rather than develop a comprehensive public park. Public forums were held in 2024 to solicit community feedback on Hart Island’s future, all while burials persisted.

In July 2025, a comprehensive 20-year improvement plan created by Starr Whitehouse was announced, focusing on increasing accessibility and resilience. The proposal includes installing new restroom facilities, constructing a visitor center, landscaping enhancements, restoring three memorials, and refurbishing an old Catholic chapel alongside upgrades to the ferry dock.

Cemetery

Hart Island serves as New York City’s potter's field, a municipal burial ground distinct from the Potter's Field located in Brooklyn. It ranks as the largest publicly funded cemetery in the United States and is considered among the largest mass grave sites nationally and potentially worldwide. More than 850,000 individuals have been laid to rest there, although annual interments have declined below 1,500 since the early 2000s. In 2005 alone, burials totaled 1,419: comprising 826 adults, 546 infants or stillbirths, and 47 dismembered body parts.

Infants and stillborns account for roughly one-third of yearly burials—a decrease from half since New York State’s Children's Health Insurance Program began covering all pregnant women in 1997. By the 2020s, those buried represented a wider socioeconomic range. A 2022 report identified recent interments including professionals such as a ballet dancer, nurse, software engineer, scuba instructor, and an award-winning composer.

Burial Practices

Interments are conducted in trenches. Infants are placed in coffins grouped in stacks of one hundred—arranged five coffins deep across usually twenty rows. Adults are buried in larger pine boxes sized according to body dimensions; these are stacked in sections of 150 coffins, three deep in two rows laid out on a grid. Seven coffin sizes exist ranging from one to seven feet long. Each coffin bears a label with an identification number, age at death, ethnicity, and if applicable, location where the body was discovered. Prior to 2020, inmates from nearby Rikers Island were compensated fifty cents per hour for burial duties; civilian contractors have since assumed this role.

Adult remains are frequently exhumed when families identify relatives through DNA testing, photographs, or fingerprints maintained by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner. Between 2007 and 2009, approximately 72 exhumations occurred annually; adult coffins are therefore staggered to facilitate removal. Coffins containing children—mostly infants—are seldom disturbed. Regulations generally mandate that coffins remain undisturbed for at least 25 years unless exhumation is authorized.

Approximately half of all burials are children under age five who died in New York City hospitals and were designated for "City Burial," often without mothers fully comprehending this designation. Many others have relatives living outside New York or abroad, complicating efforts to trace records since burial documentation is maintained within the prison system. A criminal complaint filed in 2009 triggered an inquiry into infant burial procedures.

Historical records show that prior to 1913 unknown individuals were buried individually while identified adults and children were placed in mass graves. After 1913 trenches were divided to allow more frequent adult exhumations. Coffins are stacked three deep with plots containing up to 150 boxes each; GPS coordinates mark these locations. The potter’s field also stores amputated limbs labeled accordingly. No formal ceremonies have been conducted at this site since the mid-20th century.

Traditionally, burial trenches were reused after decomposition periods ranging from 25 to 50 years; more recently historic structures have been demolished to make space for new graves. Following World War II, inmates constructed a tall white peace monument on "Cemetery Hill," which was dedicated in October 1948.

Burials of Epidemic and Pandemic Victims

Hart Island has historically been utilized as a burial ground for individuals who succumbed to infectious diseases during various outbreaks. In the 1980s, amid the AIDS epidemic, those who died from AIDS were initially interred separately, with inmate workers donning protective equipment. After it was established that HIV could not be transmitted from deceased bodies, victims of AIDS were subsequently buried in collective graves. In 2008, the island was designated to accommodate mass burials in the event of a severe influenza pandemic, with a capacity to hold as many as 20,000 remains.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, Hart Island was earmarked as an emergency burial location should local mortuary facilities become overwhelmed. Deaths occurring at home increased significantly, although not all decedents were tested for COVID-19. Preparations for mass interments commenced in March 2020, and private contractors took over burial duties from inmate laborers. While media outlets reported that burials had begun by April 2020, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio clarified that the island was reserved exclusively for unclaimed bodies or those whose families opted for burial there.

An investigation published in 2021 by The City documented a notable increase in burials—from 846 in 2019 to 2,334 in 2020—illustrating the pandemic’s effect on burial requirements.

Burial Records

A significant portion of burial documentation was lost due to an arson fire in July 1977. Records predating 1977 were relocated to the Municipal Archives in Manhattan; records created after 1977 remain preserved in handwritten ledgers, some of which have been digitized and made accessible online. In 2008, the Hart Island Project obtained access to approximately 50,000 burial records through a FOI request. A legal dispute concerning redactions of "place of death" information within these records was initiated against New York City in July 2008 and resolved through an out-of-court settlement by January 2009.

Prominent Individuals Buried

Interments on Hart Island are not limited to homeless or impoverished persons. Many were individuals whose families lacked financial means for private funerals or whose remains went unclaimed after one month. Among notable figures buried there are playwright and director Leo Birinski (1951), who died alone and impoverished, and painter Mihri Müşfik Hanım (1954), who passed away destitute. American novelist Dawn Powell was laid to rest on Hart Island in 1970, five years after her death, following medical examinations of her body and refusal by her estate’s executor to claim her remains. Academy Award-winning actor Bobby Driscoll, discovered deceased in a Manhattan tenement in 1968, was buried on the island due to delayed identification. Labor activist and songwriter T-Bone Slim was interred after his body was recovered from the Hudson River. Composer Noah Creshevsky specifically requested burial on Hart Island as a statement against the expenses and formalities associated with conventional funerals.

Hart Island Project

Established in 1994 by New York artist Melinda Hunt, the Hart Island Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing public access to burial information and assisting families in reconnecting with loved ones interred on the island. The project facilitates obtaining burial records, coordinates visitation arrangements, and operates a website designed to help locate relatives buried there. Historian Thomas Laqueur highlights Hunt’s efforts to publish names of up to 850,000 indigent individuals interred anonymously on Hart Island.

Since 2009, New York City has provided burial data to the Hart Island Project, which maintains an online database covering records from 1980 onward. The organization has been instrumental in initiating reforms such as monthly public visits to the island and legislation requiring the Department of Correction to publish burial records online.

Utilizing GPS technology, the project digitally charted grave trenches. In 2014, it introduced the "Traveling Cloud Museum," an interactive platform combining GPS-based burial maps with storytelling software that gathers public contributions about those laid to rest there. Updated with drone-acquired GeoTIFF imagery in 2018, this platform displays nearly 69,000 intact graves and allows users to add narratives, photographs, epitaphs, songs, and videos linked to individual profiles—including identification of deaths related to AIDS.

In 2012, Westchester Community College hosted an art exhibit showcasing individuals located through assistance from Hunt and the project. Additionally, the project collaborated with British landscape architects Ann Sharrock and Ian Fisher on a proposal emphasizing Hart Island's role as a natural burial site while highlighting trends toward urban green burials.

In 2023, Radio Diaries released an eight-part podcast series titled "The Unmarked Graveyard: Stories from Hart Island," which narrates stories about those buried there—including satirist Dawn Powell.

Legislative Developments

On October 28, 2011, the New York City Council's Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice convened a hearing entitled "Oversight: Examining the Operation of Potter's Field by the N.Y.C. Department of Correction on Hart Island." Legislation enacted in 2013 requires the Department of Correction to make two essential documents publicly accessible online: a burial registry and a visitation policy. Subsequently, in April 2013, the Department launched an online database documenting 66,000 burial records on Hart Island dating back to 1977.

Proposal for Transfer to Parks Department

A legislative proposal aiming to shift jurisdiction over Hart Island to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation was first introduced on April 30, 2012. The Hart Island Project endorsed this measure in September 2012; however, it did not advance. The bill was brought forward again in March 2014, with a public hearing held on January 20, 2016. Despite these efforts, the proposal failed as neither the Parks Department nor the Department of Correction supported the transfer. The Parks Department argued that managing an active cemetery fell outside its responsibilities, while the Department of Correction preferred that another agency assume control.

In 2018, City Council member Ydanis Rodríguez along with colleagues reintroduced the legislation, underscoring the importance of granting families access to their relatives' graves. The New York City Council approved the bill in November 2019, officially transferring oversight to the Parks Department. The following month, mayor Bill de Blasio signed this legislation alongside bills permitting ferry operations by the New York City Department of Transportation. Full administrative control of Hart Island was assumed by NYC Parks in July 2021.

Access

Hart Island is accessible solely via ferryboat. Both the island itself and the Fordham Street pier on City Island are controlled by the New York City Department of Correction and remain off-limits without authorization. Family members must submit advance requests to arrange visits and may leave tributes at grave sites through a scheduling system available online and by phone. All other visitors require prior approval before access is granted.

Ferry Service

Historically, a round-the-clock ferry operated between City Island and Hart Island, departing every 45 minutes during daytime hours and less frequently overnight. These ferries transported both passengers and deceased individuals. By the 1960s, two vessels—the Michael Cosgrove (constructed in 1961) and the Fordham (in service from 1922 to 1982)—served this route. Operating expenses were substantial; for example, in 1967 with approximately 1,500 monthly passengers, annual costs reached $300,000. By 1977, service frequency was reduced to seven daily trips. In 2000, the Department of Correction offered a single guided tour annually. Following legislation passed in 2019, responsibility for increasing ferry frequency was assigned to the New York City Department of Transportation; as of 2024, ferry service operates twice per month.

Easing Access Restrictions

Access to Hart Island has gradually improved due to advocacy from organizations such as the Hart Island Project, the New York Civil Liberties Union, Interfaith Friends of Potter's Field, and Picture the Homeless. Nonetheless, the Department of Correction (DOC) resisted further relaxation of restrictions; a DOC representative was quoted in a 2016 article stating: "As long as D.O.C. runs the facility, we are going to run it with the D.O.C. mentality."

In July 2015, DOC implemented a policy permitting up to five family members and guests to visit burial sites one weekend each month. The inaugural visit under this policy took place on July 19, 2015. Visits to individual graves occur twice monthly and are restricted to immediate family members. Additionally, monthly guided tours to Hart Island’s gazebo are open to the public. The ferry departs from a secured dock located on City Island. In 2017, visitor capacity increased from fifty to seventy per month. During the COVID-19 pandemic, visits were suspended; when they resumed in May 2021, ferry capacity was limited to ten visitors per trip.

Management by NYC Parks

In July 2021, oversight of Hart Island was officially shifted from the Department of Correction to NYC Parks. To enhance transportation access, NYC Parks conducted public forums in early 2022 as part of the Hart Island Transportation Study, where they introduced four potential solutions: a shuttle bus running between Orchard Beach (Bronx) and the Fordham Street ferry terminal; a shuttle service originating from the New York City Subway's Pelham Bay Park station with stops at Orchard Beach and Fordham Street; establishing a new ferry route from Ferry Point Park directly to the island; and extending the NYC Ferry Soundview line to include Hart Island.

Although control changed hands, an October 2021 report by Bloomberg indicated that conditions for visitors had not significantly improved. NYC Parks clarified that their objective focuses on ensuring a safer setting for those visiting the cemetery and island rather than transforming it into a conventional public park.

See also

• Davids Island (New York)
• Geography and environment of New York City
• Postage stamps and postal history of the Confederate States#Prisoner of war prisons and camps

External links

• The Hart Island Project
• New York City Parks Department Hart Island webpage
• New York City Department of Corrections Hart Island webpage
• Radio Diaries' "The Unmarked Graveyard: Stories from Hart Island"