Smallpox Hospital (Renwick Ruin)
Roosevelt Island | built 1975
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1856
The new Smallpox Hospital opens for public inspection after a fire destroyed the old wooden buildings
New York's smallpox patients had been kept in what a resident physician called a pile of poor wooden outhouses on the riverbank. When fire destroyed them, patients were moved into the new stone hospital before it was fully ready, and it opened for public inspection on December 18, 1856. It held a hundred patients, with charity cases in lower-floor wards and paying patients in private rooms upstairs.
“…first opened for public inspection on December 18, 1856. When the old buildings were destroyed by fire…”
- 1856
James Renwick Jr. designs a crenellated Gothic hospital of island gneiss with unusual pointed windows
James Renwick Jr., who won the Grace Church competition at twenty-five, designed the Smallpox Hospital in the crenellated Gothic Revival style. Its walls are gray gneiss quarried on the island, and the third-floor windows have pointed, straight-sided arches made of mitred stone blocks. The entrance is marked by a heavy porch, a crenellated bay and a tower-like feature topped by a small freestanding pointed arch.
“The Smallpox Hospital is faced with gray gneiss, the stone quarried on the island and used for many of the buildings erected there.”
- 1875
The Board of Health takes over the Smallpox Hospital and renames it Riverside Hospital
In 1875 the Board of Health took control of the hospital, which the Commission of Charities and Correction had run along with the island's other institutions. It was renamed Riverside Hospital but kept treating smallpox cases. Unlike most of the city's institutions on the island, it had never been only for charity patients: wards on the lower floors served the poor, while private rooms upstairs took paying patients.
- 1886
The hospital becomes a residence for student nurses after smallpox care moves to North Brother Island
In 1875 the Board of Health took over the hospital and renamed it Riverside Hospital, though it still treated smallpox. In 1886 it reverted to the Commission of Charities and Correction and became a home for nurses of the Maternity and Charity Hospital Training School, founded in 1875. The change came after a new contagious-disease hospital was built on North Brother Island, which also reduced disease risk for Blackwell's Island's roughly seven thousand residents.
“In 1886 the building reverted to control by the Commission of Charities and Correction and was converted to a Home for the Nurses…”
- 1904
York & Sawyer and Renwick, Aspinwall & Owen add matching wings to the old hospital
Two new wings in the same Gothic spirit were added to flank the old hospital. York & Sawyer designed the south wing in 1903-04, and Renwick, Aspinwall & Owen, successors to James Renwick Jr.'s firm, added the north wing in 1904-05. The only departure from Renwick's original design was a mansard roof with dormers to gain extra space.
“…the south wing, the work of architects York & Sawyer, was built in 1903-1904, and the north wing was added by Renwick, Aspinwall & Owen…”
- 1972
The ruined hospital is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The Smallpox Hospital went onto the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, a century and more after Renwick's design opened and well after the building was abandoned. Known as the Renwick Ruin, it became New York City's only landmarked ruin. The listing came four years before the city's own landmark designation.
“In 1972, the hospital was added to the National Register of Historic Places, making it New York City's "only landmarked ruin.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1976
Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the ruin, noting Giorgio Cavaglieri's earlier work to shore it up
After City Hospital moved to Queens in the 1950s, the Smallpox Hospital was abandoned and decayed. In the late 1960s the New York State Urban Development Corporation had architect Giorgio Cavaglieri reinforce its walls, and the Landmarks Commission and historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock listed it among island buildings worth preserving. On March 23, 1976, the city designated it a landmark, comparing it to England's Gothic ruins such as Tintern Abbey.
“…undertook certain measures to reinforce the walls of the structure under the direction of the prominent New York architect, Giorgio Cavaglieri…”
- 1995
Nightly lighting of the Renwick Ruin begins as a fundraising effort
Since 1995 the neo-Gothic ruins of the Smallpox Hospital have been lit up every night. The lighting was meant to raise money for stabilizing the crumbling structure, and the effort has had modest success. The building stands at the southern tip of Roosevelt Island beside what is now Four Freedoms Park.
“…the Neo-Gothic ruins have been illuminated nightly since 1995, in a somewhat successful effort to raise funds for stabilizing the structure.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2007
Part of the north wing collapses, adding urgency to stabilizing the Renwick Ruin
The ruin was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and floodlights have lit it nightly since 1995 to raise money for its upkeep. On December 26, 2007, part of the north wing fell down. In 2009 ground was broken on Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, whose plans include stabilizing the Smallpox Hospital.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2009
Ground is broken for Four Freedoms Park, with a plan to stabilize the ruin beside it
A groundbreaking was held on May 28, 2009, for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, beside the Smallpox Hospital at the island's southern tip. The park's plans covered a memorial to Roosevelt and a 14-acre public area, along with stabilization of the hospital ruins. A $4.5 million stabilization project is meant to let the ruins eventually open to the public.
“On May 28, 2009, ground was broken on the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, which includes plans to stabilize the Smallpox Hospital…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2018
Friends of the Ruin forms to stabilize the hospital and open it as a park
The nonprofit Friends of the Ruin was established in 2018 to stabilize what remains of the Smallpox Hospital and turn the grounds into a public park. By 2022 it had raised an estimated $1.2 million and was working with Walter B. Melvin Architects on stabilization drawings, which call for inserting steel columns, reinforcing walls and reusing stones salvaged from collapsed sections. Most interior walls would come down, leaving a shell open to the sky.
Source: rihs.us
- 2021
Community Board 8 backs a memorial to infectious-disease workers at the ruin
In March 2021 Manhattan's Community Board 8 gave unanimous support to the Friends of the Ruin plan to stabilize the Smallpox Hospital and turn it into a lasting memorial to medical professionals and frontline workers who fight viral and infectious diseases. The group planned an international design competition, and the finished memorial is meant to be free to the public and open year-round.
Source: rihs.us
Further reading
- Smallpox HospitalWikipedia
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