Hart Island, New York
 Hart Island
Hart Island
Hart Island
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| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Long Island Sound |
| Coordinates | 40°51′9″N 73°46′12″W / 40.85250°N 73.77000°WCoordinates: 40°51′9″N 73°46′12″W / 40.85250°N 73.77000°W |
| Archipelago | Pelham Islands |
| Area | 131.22 acres (53.10 ha) |
| Length | 1.0 mi (1.6 km) |
| Width | 0.25 mi (0.4 km) |
| Administration | |
| State |
 New York
|
| City | New York City |
| Borough | Bronx |
Hart Island, sometimes referred to as Hart's Island, is an island in New York City at the western end of Long Island Sound. It is approximately a mile long and one quarter of a mile wide and is located to the northeast of City Island in the Pelham Islands group. The island is the easternmost part of the borough of the Bronx. The island has been used as a Union Civil War prison camp, a psychiatric institution, a tuberculosis sanatorium, potter's field, and a boys' reformatory.
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. 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. A passage in William Styron's novel Lie Down in Darkness 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.
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