Southpoint Park and the Strecker Laboratory

New York · United States · Urban site

The Strecker Memorial Laboratory of 1892, where the island's dead were studied. The end of the chain.

At the southernmost point, beside the ruin, stands the Strecker Memorial Laboratory, completed in 1892. It was built as a pathological and bacteriological laboratory attached to the island's hospitals and was one of the earliest of its kind in the United States. Here the diseases and the dead of the island's institutions were studied. Around it spreads Southpoint Park, with views towards both Manhattan and Queens, and south of that lies FDR Four Freedoms Park, a memorial to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. At the end of the river, the island's dark medical history meets a modern park for reflection.

To finish here, at the laboratory where the island's dead were autopsied and with the view out over the water, gives the walk its proper tone. The whole island was built to keep the sick, the mad and the poor out of sight, and Strecker is the end point of that chain: the room where the result of the isolation was studied. Folklore speaks of cold and of figures by the laboratory's brick wall at dusk, but the real reflection is historical. Stand here a while and look back towards Manhattan, so close and yet so set apart, and think of all those who were brought here across the river and never came back. Madness and medicine end not with a scream but with silence.

FAQ

Where is Southpoint Park and the Strecker Laboratory located?

Southpoint Park and the Strecker Laboratory is in New York, United States.

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Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.

Image: Jack Boucher · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons