4. Wards Island Once Had an Insane Asylum
New York City Asylum for the Insane via Wikimedia Commons from the British Library
In the mid 19th Century, Blackwell’s Island (now Roosevelt Island), which housed the first municipal mental hospital in New York City, was overcrowded with social facilities. The City looked elsewhere and the New York City Asylum for the Insane was founded on Wards Island.
This new asylum opened in 1863. The state took control of the asylum in 1871 and renamed it the “Manhattan State Hospital,” which at the time was the world’s largest psychiatric hospital. It was later named the Manhattan Psychiatric Center.