The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.
The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.
Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.
Fern L. Nesson
One of the greatest transformations in the landscape of New York City has been on Roosevelt Island, a small island located in the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens. Originally named Minnahannock by the native Americans, it has had a long and somewhat checkered past. According to the New York City Guide, Governor Van Twiller of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam purchased the island from the native Americans. Used by the Dutch colonists as pasture for their hogs, the island became known as Varcken (Hog) Island.
In the 1600s, the British took over the colony and Varken island became known in English as Perkins Island and was the home of several successive British owners, including Robert Blackwell. At his death in 1717, the island then became known as Blackwell Island.
The City of New York bought Blackwell Island in 1828 and built poor houses, a penitentiary and a charity hospital on it but things went downhill from there. The Guide reports that, “by 1921, the reputation of the workhouse and penitentiary on the island had attained such notoriety that the Board of Aldermen, with Coué-like faith, changed its name from Blackwell’s to Welfare Island. ”
WPA Guide, p.422
Émile Coué was the originator of the theory of auto-suggestion. He asserted that, merely by wishing it so, any situation could be improved. Coué recommended a mantra: “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.
Not surprisingly, the island’s name change did nothing to improve conditions on the island:
“Critics called the obsolete buildings”a sin-steeped pile.” Reports of serious overcrowding, favoritism, degeneracy, and intramural violence brought frequent scandals. Cliques of favored prisoners virtually ruled the institutions and controlled a heavy traffic in narcotics.”
WPA Guide, p. 422.
In January, 1934, Austin MacCormick, the Commissioner of Corrections took action:
“[MacCormick] led a spectacular raid on the island that shattered the ugly system”whereby 200 men lived like kings and 1,200 almost starved.” It was recognized, however, that the ancient structures were ill-suited to modern penal methods and the quarters that had housed such notorious convicts as the Tammany leader “Boss” Tweed […] were razed. The prisoners were moved to the new Rikers Island penitentiary. After more than a century’s use as a place of punishment, Welfare Island was entirely given over to the care of the aged and the poor.”
WPA Guide, p. 422.
When the NYC Guide was written, change was in the air again. Its writers reported that ” Welfare Island [was] a jumble of institutional masonry, ill-assorted piles of […] hospital and asylum architecture.”
“The eighteen light gray buildings of New YORK CITY HOSPITAL occupy the southern end of the island […] It was founded as Penitentiary Hospital in 1832. Despite an early history of scandal and mismanagement, it has come to be recognized […] as one of America’s fine hospitals, and its staff includes many eminent physicians.
WELFARE HOSPITAL FOR CHRONIC DISEASES, immediately north of City Hospital, represents one of the most advanced hospital designs in the world. Four four-story pavilions, [are] arranged in chevron-shaped pairs on either side of an […] administration building. […] The unusual shape of the buildings permits a maximum of sunlight to reach every ward and gives every patient a river view […] The hospital will be opened in 1939.
The New YORK CITY HOME FOR DEPENDENTS […] is a community in itself, with churches, stores, long dormitories, and smaller houses arranged about a central square. There are fifty-six buildings covering almost twenty acres. The home is equipped to furnish food, shelter, recreation, and care for 1,747 indigents, including aged and blind people. […]
To the north, the 470 CENTRAL NEUROLOGICAL HOSPITAL is devoted to the treatment of organic nervous diseases […] The hospital was opened in 1909 […]
The METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL occupies the northern end of the island. This century-old institution is one of the largest hospitals in the city (1,385beds). With some 1,250 employees, it is equipped to give free service of many kinds: general medical, surgical, obstetrical, etc. The main buildings were erected in 1839.
Guide, p.421-23.
Over the next three decades, many of the hospitals closed and, by the 1960s the island was abandoned. Finally, In the early 1970s, when the City was experiencing a crisis in available housing, it leased the land to the New York State Urban Development corporation which built condominiums to house over 20,000 city residents. With no direct access to Manhattan, the UDC also built the Roosevelt Island Tramway linking the island to Manhattan. In 1973, the UDC renamed Roosevelt Island in honor of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and announced plans to build “Four Freedoms Park” (after a famous speech by FDR) at the southern tip of the island. The park opened in 2012 and in 2017, Cornell University opened a tech campus on the last remaining open space.
Each year, FDR is celebrated at a summer garden party in Four Freedoms Park and, this summer, I rode the tram to attend the party. It is a journey that I recommend highly. The tram itself is a wonderful adventure, providing vast 360° views high above the of the city and the park is lovely. Its angular marble walls and allées of stately trees jut out into the East River like the prow of a sleek sailboat. It was 90° on the day I visited and Manhattan was unbearably hot, but the breeze upon the river was refreshing and cool. Four Freedoms Park is a spot to be cherished and its name suits it well.
September, 2023
