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North Brother Island, spanning 8 hectares, was completely uninhabited before 1885. It was only in 1885, when the Riversida Hospital was built as a quarantine and isolation center for smallpox patients, that North Brother officially began to be inhabited.
Later, Riverside Hospital became a treatment center for patients with infectious diseases, not just smallpox. By 1930, large and modern hospitals had been built in many parts of New York City, and infectious diseases were no longer spreading as rapidly. The number of people requiring isolation gradually decreased, causing the island to be abandoned.
By 1940, the buildings on North Brother Island were converted into housing for veterans and their families, but due to difficult access (requiring ferry travel to the mainland) and a lack of essential supplies, they gradually moved elsewhere. Later, it continued to function as a drug rehabilitation center. However, in 1963, when the last doctors and patients left, it became a deserted island.
During its brief period of habitation, North Brother Island's primary inhabitants were largely patients, isolated from society. Perhaps the island's most famous resident was "Typhoid Mary," the woman behind one of the most bizarre stories in world medical history.
Today, everything that remains on this island has been severely overgrown and degraded by nature. Vines cover the structures, and dust and debris are everywhere. North Brother is one of the world's most famous ghost islands.
Trees have completely covered the island.
The structures here have also fallen into disrepair.
Green grass and vines dominate everywhere.
A house has fallen into disrepair.
The winter scenery only made the place look more desolate.
