Randalls Island (sometimes called Randall's Island) and Wards Island are conjoined islands, collectively called Randalls and Wards Island, in New York City.Feature Detail Report for Randalls Island "Purchased in 1772 by British Captain James Montresor; sold in 1784 to Johnathan Randel; acquired by City of New York in 1835."Feature Detail Report for Wards Island Part of the borough of Manhattan, it is separated from Manhattan Island by the Harlem River, from Queens by the East River and Hell Gate, and from the Bronx by the Bronx Kill. A channel named Little Hell Gate separated Randalls Island to the north from Wards Island to the south; the channel was filled by the early 1960s. A third, smaller island, Sunken Meadow Island, was located east of Randalls Island and was connected to it in 1955.
The Lenape Native Americans, who lived in the New York City area before European colonization, did not inhabit the islands. Between the 1630s and the 1770s, the islands had various European residents; the islands had the same owners in the 17th century, but ownership was split during the 18th century. Randalls and Wards Islands became known for their respective early-19th-century owners, Jonathan Randel and the Ward brothers. The city government took over both islands in the mid-19th century and developed numerous hospitals, asylums, and cemeteries there. Most of the existing buildings were demolished starting in the 1930s, when the Triborough (now Robert F. Kennedy) Bridge, two parks, and a wastewater treatment plant were developed there. The islands have since been connected with each other, and various recreational facilities and institutions have been developed on both islands in the late 20th and the 21st centuries.
Most of Randalls and Wards Island is parkland with athletic fields, a driving range, greenways, playgrounds, picnic grounds, and the Icahn Stadium track-and-field facility. The island is home to several public facilities, including a psychiatric hospital, an addiction treatment facility, shelters, a fire training academy, police station, and a wastewater treatment plant. The modern-day island is crossed by the Robert F. Kennedy and Hell Gate bridges.
Geography
What is now Randalls and Wards Island was originally composed of Randalls Island to the north, Wards Island to the south, and Sunken Meadow just southeast of Randalls Island. A small creek, Little Hell Gate, ran between the islands. The current Randalls and Wards Island came about when Little Hell Gate was partially infilled. The combined island is part of the New York City borough of Manhattan; this dates to an 1829 statute that designated the islands as being within Manhattan's eastern boundary. Randalls and Wards Island has an area of about . The island is surrounded by Bronx Kill to the north, separating it from the Bronx; Harlem River to the west, separating it from Manhattan Island; and the Hell Gate channel of the East River to the south and east, separating it from Queens. The island had a population of 1,648 in 2010.
A small island called Mill Rock exists south of Wards Island, while further south is Roosevelt Island. Prior to the removal of Hell Gate rocks in the mid-19th century, there were other large rock outcroppings in the East River near Wards Island.
Islands
Randalls Island Before the islands were combined, Randalls Island had an area of about . Randalls Island had some granite outcroppings and marshland. The southern part of the island was composed of low hills, while the northern two-thirds were higher and flatter. There were two isolated ponds on the northern part of the island. There was a ridge across the island's northern section, which hosted farms and fruit orchards in the 19th century. Surrounding Randalls Island was a narrow strip of marshland, and there were larger marshes to the north and southeast, which drained into the East River. The north and southeast shores also had shellfish beds. The southern part of the island was leveled, and the shoreline rebuilt, in the mid-19th century, though some meadows and swamps remained until the 1930s.
Sunken Meadow Island To the east of Randalls Island was Sunken Meadow Island, which covered about . Ownership of Sunken Meadow Island had been disputed during the early 20th century, and city officials had considered that island to be part of Randalls Island. Infilling took place beginning in the mid-1950s. The Sunken Meadow section of Randalls Island Park comprises and contains ball fields. Also east of Randalls Island was an even smaller island called the Hammock, which was subsumed through filling operations.
Wards Island
Originally, Wards Island had an area of about . Like Randalls Island to the north, Wards Island had marshlands on its western and northern shores and shellfish beds on the southeastern part of the island. A 1968 guidebook described grasses as being present across the island. The island is surrounded by piles of riprap or rocks.
By the 19th century, the southern end of Wards Island was known as Negro Point; the Negro Point name became official in 1984. A ledge extended about to its southeast. The United States Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration used the Negro Point name. Parks commissioner Henry Stern renamed Negro Point in 2001 upon learning of the name, which he thought was offensive. He changed the name to "Scylla Point" because it faced Charybdis Playground in Astoria Park, on the opposite shore of Hell Gate; these were named after the mythological monsters of Scylla and Charybdis on the Strait of Messina.
There were other outcroppings around Wards Island. A 1918 guidebook listed two outcroppings known as Holmes Rock and Hogs Back, both of which were west of Scylla Point and above the waterline. The western outcropping extended to the southwest, while the eastern outcropping extended to the southwest. These outcroppings are made of Manhattan schist. Ships traveling from the Belgian city of Antwerp also dumped slag onto the shores of the island.
Little Hell Gate
Little Hell Gate was originally a natural waterway separating Randalls Island and Wards Island. The east end of the waterway opened into the Hell Gate passage of the East River, opposite Astoria, Queens. The west end met the Harlem River across from East 116th Street, Manhattan. At the Hell Gate Bridge, the waterway was over 1000 feet (300 m) wide with swift currents.
The opening of the Triborough Bridge spurred the conversion of both islands to parkland. Soon thereafter, the city began filling in most of the passage between the two islands, in order to expand and connect the two parks. The inlet was filled in by the 1960s. What is now called "Little Hell Gate Inlet" is the western end of what used to be Little Hell Gate; however, few traces of the eastern end of Little Hell Gate still remain: an indentation in the shoreline on the East River side indicates the former east entrance to that waterway. Today, parkland and part of the New York City Fire Department Academy occupy that area.
History
Lenape use
According to archaeological digs, the area around Randalls and Wards Islands was settled by Paleo-Indians up to 12,000 years ago.; The Lenape, a Native American people indigenous to New York City, called Wards Island or . The exact translation of the name is not known but has been interpreted as "forest", "wild land[s]", or "uninhabited place"; the name is derived from , the Munsee Delaware word for "the woods". Randalls Island was called or . Neither Randalls nor Wards Islands are known to have had any Lenape settlements. Just west of Randalls Island was a village called ("little narrow tract") on Manhattan Island, while to the north of Randalls Island was the village of in the Bronx.; There was another settlement, , on Manhattan Island southwest of the two islands as late as 1669.
At the time of European contact in the early 17th century, there were 900 Wecquaesgeek Lenape living in what is now Upper Manhattan, the Bronx, and lower Westchester County.; The islands became part of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, and Dutch colonists ultimately forced the Wecquaesgeek off Manhattan by the late 17th century.
17th through early 19th centuries Between the 1630s and the 1770s, the islands had various European residents. At the time, the islands were several miles from the boundaries of New York City, which then occupied modern-day Lower Manhattan. The islands had the same owners in the 17th century, but ownership was split during the 18th century.
Early colonial use Wouter Van Twiller, the Director General of New Netherland, obtained the island from two Lenape chiefs named Numers and Seyseys on July 16, 1637. Van Twiller only used the islands for raising livestock. Wards Island's first European name was Great Barent Island, while Randalls Island's first European name was Little Barent Island; both were named after a Danish cowherd named Barent Jansen Blom. A map from 1639 indicates that Van Twiller farmed Great Barent Island but left Little Barent Island unused.
The islands were both seized in April 1667, three years after the British takeover of New Netherland.; The names of Great and Little Barent Islands were changed to Great and Little Barn after the British took over. Thomas Delavall, a customs collector and an early mayor of New York City, claimed ownership of both islands in January 1667 and formally took ownership in 1668. Delavall offered the islands as a public park for the nearby town of Harlem, but nothing came of this proposal. After Delavall's death in 1682, the islands were bequeathed to his son-in-law William Dervall. The islands became part of New York County (now Manhattan) in 1683, and they became part of New York City in 1691.; Toward the end of the 17th century, stones from Little Barn Island were quarried for the construction of Trinity Church in Manhattan's Financial District.
Early and mid-18th century use Great Barn (Wards) Island came under the ownership of Thomas Parcell in 1687; his family owned it until , during which it was called Parcell's Island. At least four people, likely members of the Parcell family, were buried in a stone vault on the island. Wards Island was also known as Buchanan's Island. Thomas Bohanna bought on the southern section Great Barn Island in 1767, and the island was briefly known for him. Bohanna's portion of Great Barn Island was then resold in 1772 to Benjamin Hildreth, while John William Pinfold obtained the remainder of the island at that time. By then, Great Barn Island included an orchard, farms, pastures, and several buildings.
Meanwhile, Little Barn (Randalls) Island had come under the ownership of Elias Pipon, Delavall's great grandson, by 1735. Pipon had emigrated from England in 1732 and was socially popular until he went bankrupt in 1739 and had to return to England. The island subsequently became known as Belle Isle or Belle Island. The New York Times describes an "amiable English gentlemen of quiet tastes", George Talbot, as being the next occupant of Pipon's house. Talbot definitely occupied the island by 1747, and the isle gained the name Talbot's Island. He died on the island in 1765 and bequeathed it to the Society in Great Britain for Propagating the Gospel to Foreign Parts, which held onto the island for another seven years. Captain John Montresor, an engineer with the British army, purchased Randalls Island in 1772. He renamed it Montresor's Island and lived on it until the American Revolutionary War; he surveyed the New York Harbor area for the British prior to the war.