Hart Island -NYC
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History
The island was part of the 0.2 square miles (1 km2) property purchased by Thomas Pell from the local Native Americans in 1654. On May 27, 1868, New York City purchased the island from Edward Hunter of the Bronx for $75,000.
There are several versions of the origin of the island's name. In one, British cartographers named it "Heart Island" in 1775, due to its organ-like shape, but the second letter was dropped shortly thereafter.
Others sources indicate that "hart" refers to an English word for "stag." One version of this theory is that the island was given the name when it was used as a game preserve.[5] Another version holds that it was named in reference to deer that migrated from the mainland during periods when ice covered that part of Long Island Sound.[6] A passage in William Styron's novel Lie Down in Darkness[7] describes the island as occupied by a lone deer shot by a hunter in a row boat. Styron provides a vivid description of the public burials following World War II including the handling of remains from re-excavated graves.
At various times during its history, Hart Island has had a workhouse, a hospital, prisons, a Civil War internment camp, a reformatory and a Nike missile base. The island's area is 0.531 km² (0.205 sq mi, or 131.22 acres) and had no permanent population as of the 2000 census. Currently it serves as the city's potter's field and is run by the New York City Department of Correction. The first public use of Hart Island was to train United States Colored Troops beginning in 1864.
