Geography
History
Origin Of The Name
Main Attractions Of The Neighborhood
1. Granny Annie’s Bar & Kitchen(425 Main St): An Irish bar and restaurant with a simple menu and a small but comprehensive drink collection.
2. NISI (549 Main St): The restaurant boasts a central location on the island and is well known for its great food, but the service doesn’t get a lot of positive light.
3. Piccolo Trattoria Ristorante Pizzeria (455 Main St): It can be considered the premier pizza place in the neighborhood. But it also offers a great view.
4. Panorama Room (22 N Loop Rd): It’s a beautiful place to eat and offers gorgeous views. It offers oysters and small plates (Seafood), but more people come here for the view than for the food.
5. The Cafe at Cornell Tech (2 W Loop Rd): It’s well known for its menu, cleanliness, and affordable prices.
6. Blackwell (House500 Main St): It was built in 1796 by the great-grandson of the individual for whom the island was named. It’s one of the few buildings from the 18th century to survive.
7. The Octagon (888 Main St): It’s an impressive 1834 octagonal building that once marked the entrance to the island’s lunatic asylum and is now part of the apartment building entrance.
8. Strecker Memorial Laboratory (Southpoint Park): This building has an important place, not just in the island’s history but scientific history as well. It was built as the first institution of its kind (pathological and bacteriological research) in 1892 in the country and was associated with the City Hospital.
9. Chapel of the Good Shepherd (543 Main St): It’s a beautiful Episcopal church that was built in 1888.
10. Blackwell Island Light (Lighthouse Park, 910 Main St): The 15-meter tall Lighthouse created using the city’s own stone is another major landmark structure in the neighborhood.
11. Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park(1 FDR Four Freedoms Park): It’s a relatively new, four-acre public park. It was designed in 1974 but was created in 2012.
12. Lighthouse Park (910 Main St): The name Lighthouse Park refers to the Lighthouse that was built on the Northern tip of the island in 1872, using the stone quarried in the island itself.
13. Smallpox Memorial Hospital (E Rd): It was built in 1856 and was the first hospital dedicated to smallpox patients in the country. It later became a maternity and charity hospital training school. It’s one of the landmarked ruins in the neighborhood.
14. Roosevelt Island Tramway (E 60 St &2 Av): The tramway was originally established as a temporary connection between the island and the Upper East Side neighborhood in Manhattan, but even after the subway, the tramway just stayed there. It was the first aerial tramway in the US when it was established in 1976.
15. Roosevelt Island Ferry (E Main St): Taking a Roosevelt Island Ferry is a slower but way more picturesque way to travel.
What Is Roosevelt Island Known For?
- Its aerial tram connecting the island to Midtown East, hovering 250 feet above the ground
- Its unique history and association with hospitals, lunatic asylums, and penitentiaries.
- A lot of green space and a cherry-tree walk.
- The campus of an Ivy League university (Cornell).
- Nellie Bly’s famous asylum exposé in the late 1800s.
Population
Interesting Facts About Roosevelt Island
- The first exclusive smallpox hospital in the US was built on Roosevelt Island.
