Some buildings whisper their secrets, while others scream them through broken windows and crumbling walls.
The Smallpox Memorial Hospital on Roosevelt Island stands as one of New York’s most haunting reminders that history isn’t always pretty, and sometimes the most fascinating stories come wrapped in tragedy and Gothic architecture.
You’ve probably passed Roosevelt Island a thousand times without giving it much thought, that slender strip of land sitting in the East River between Manhattan and Queens like a forgotten bookmark in New York’s sprawling story.
But tucked away on the southern tip of this island sits a structure so eerily beautiful and historically significant that it makes you wonder how something this remarkable could hide in plain sight for so long…