Hart Island is a 131-acre New York City public cemetery in Long Island Sound—you have to take a short ferry from City Island in the Bronx to get there. It’s the final resting place for over 1 million people.
Since the 19th century, Hart Island has served as a quarantine station, psychiatric hospital, tuberculosis ward, reform school, homeless shelter, rehabilitation facility, military base, and jail. Thousands of New Yorkers who died from HIV/AIDS were buried on Hart Island in the 1980s and ’90s.
Now, the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation is working with landscape architects at Starr Whitehouse to turn Hart Island into a vibrant public park, albeit one where folks can still visit their deceased friends and family members in peace.
The concept plan ideated by Starr Whitehouse was released yesterday by the Department of Parks & Recreation and is outlined here. It presents a 20-year vision for New York City’s public cemetery established in 1869. According to a vision statement, the goal is to create a “contemplative, quiet, and spiritual place.”
“Visitors come to be close to family members and loved ones, to engage with New York City’s history, and to admire the natural beauty of the island,” the vision statement continued. “As New York City’s public cemetery, Hart Island provides the essential service of burials for those most in need.”
The Vision
It all started in 2021 when Hart Island changed hands from the New York City Department of Corrections to the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation and Department of Social Services, per an inter-agency memorandum of understanding. It was after that transfer Starr Whitehouse was engaged and tasked with transforming the island while respecting its somber history.
Under the concept plan, an existing 20th-century Catholic chapel will be restored as a sanctuary. The chapel’s structure will be shored up, and the dilapidated roof will be removed, creating an open-air space for genuflection and reflection.
Landscape architects pointed to St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn as a precedent for what they’d like to see happen at the Hart Island chapel.
New features will include a Remembrance Walk for visitors interested in visiting Hart Island’s gravestones. This will be coupled with a new welcome center to assist visitors with wayfinding, and an upgraded maintenance and operations compound.
The dock area that receives ferry riders from City Island will have new trees and benches, and new ADA ramps. New and restored meadows, plantings, and trees are also part of the plan. Three existing memorials—an AIDS memorial, a Civil War memorial, and a Peace memorial—will be refurbished.
Given Hart Island’s vulnerability to rising sea levels, its 15,000-linear-foot shoreline will be fortified. Existing sea walls will be swapped out with natural revetment, earthen berms, and wetland seedings. Hart Island’s fields, lawns, and beaches will remain accessible for all to enjoy.
An earlier version of the Hart Island masterplan was shared with community members and stakeholders last summer. That iteration has since undergone community review, culminating in the final concept plan shared this week.
Moving forward, Hart Island will be managed under a joint New York City Human Resources Administration and Department of Parks & Recreation management structure.
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