Happy Wisdom VI - The Forgotten Ruins of New York City's Brother Island

North Brother Island - Typhoid Mary's Prison

Part of happiness is discovery, and this week I discovered, through the kind folks of RadioLab and their podcast episode called "Patient Zero".  It was about finding the first event of any sort, from disease to who was the first person who gave a high five.  

What caught my attention was the story about Typhoid Mary.  Well, I've been using this term for basically my whole life with no idea of where it came from or if it was a real person. I imagined she was from the ancient times, or someone like O'Leary's Cow, but it turns out that she was from the turn of the 20th century (1869 –1938) and operated less than 40 miles from the town I grew up in, namely, Oyster Bay, NY, which was the location of the first case of Typhoid. A wealthy family ( somethings never change ) called in to report their very ill little girl. I won't repeat the whole story, but the long and short of it was that this brilliant doctor they called in did some digging and real investigative work and discovered that this outbreak across the greater New York area was tied to a one thing – they all had the same cook, a woman named Mary Mallon.  

Mary was an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid. So she wasn't sick, which meant  she didn't believe the good doctor when he told her that she was the cause of at least three cases at the time.  Mary was a feisty Irishwoman, and was very resistant to providing stool samples and blood.  The podcast details some of the hilarity related to physically coercing Mary into providing bodily fluids, which involved a lady sitting on Mary to do it, and described the experience like "wrestling with a lion".

Nevertheless, Mary was held for three years, but after signing an affidavit saying she would not ever cook again she was released. The rebellious Mary must have not thought much of the diagnosis still since after a few years and a few more cases (maybe up to 50) they found her with spatula in hand, cooking for in a hospital of all places.

Overrun Hospital on Brother Island

Needless to say she was arrested, thrown back onto the island that would become her permanent prison for the remainder of her life.  The thing of it was that by that time there were hundreds of known carriers by then, and they were not imprisoned.  The conclusion drawn by our intrepid RadioLab hosts was that Typhoid Mary’s incarceration was a symbolic gesture – more to make people feel better than to really protect their health. 

But what was most surprising was the compelling nature of the island she was exiled to. This was a busy place and had a tuberculosis hospital, a shipwreck, and Typhoid Mary all in its history. That was too much for me so I had to look it up. There is some renewed interest in Brother Island, including a photo book from which I got these images ( check for more incredible photos here), and do buy this book.  

You should also read the RadioLab folks account of their trip to this Island. Here's a quote: 

"North Brother Island is more fascinating by accident than most intentionally fascinating places are. It feels as though one day, everyone living and working there just dropped everything and left. It feels as much like that day was yesterday as it feels like it was 100 years ago. The hospital smells medicinal, maybe from all of the x-ray film piled up on the floor of the x-ray room. Random fire hydrants and lamp posts stick up through the thickets and weeds – but soon you realize there’s nothing random about it. There are roads under all that thick overgrowth. And curbs. A curb is so urban a thing this place can’t have ever claimed one, but it did. Roofs and basements should never meet each other, but they do here."

You can still smell the medicine! As I gazed at the photos, it really does look like they ran out of this place in a hurry. Books are strewn about, light fixtures are in place, pamphlets are on the floors of rooms. 

How marvelously creepy would it be to be trapped on such an island? This would be a stupendous location for a horror movie; its amazing to me that Shutter Island wasn't about this place, or at least filmed here. If you get a chance to go to The Ruins of New York, please take pictures and be very careful!

That's it for now - enjoy!

-Joe