Daily News from New York, New York • 192

DAILY NEWS, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1267 36 h-fr 1 hfH 4 Pfe 1 ssa cser 3 NEWS photos by Gcorsc AAatl-soo Two faces Welfare Island: college campus (left) and stage set (right) suggest new uses for nearly abandoned isle. Welfare klmd 1 Seeks Aw Ufa By KITTY HANSON Second of tivo articles A WALK around Welfare Island is one encounter after another with abandonment. Weather-beaten wheelchairs stand forgotten on hospital ramps overgrown with honeysuckle; a rusting metal hospital bed stands near a broken window; steel food carts stand beside crumbling dumbwaiters in an abandoned hospital kitchen. This is the overwhelming atmosphere of the two-mile-Icng island that once teemed with the unwanted, the incurably ill, the insane and the criminal of the city. Today, except for Bird S.

and GoJdwater Hospitals for the chronically ill and handicapped, the island is largely unused. I For 330 vears, it has been 1 ro s- in Lon Island City. ,1 rx either bridge, however, pro- jsolated from the life and I vides the direct flow-through growth of the city by the i subway line. The proposed under the river lack of easy access. But the pastoral peace and cemetery calm seem destined to nd in another five years.

By 1U72. the new suhway. tunnel from Manhattan's 63d St. to 41st St. and Vernon Blvd.

in DAIIXa NEWS SPECIAL FEATURE The corporation is being formed by the Frederick WT. Richmond Foundation. Richmond, in 161, presented his own plan for the island. It would have covered the island with a cement slab from which would Tise other Vfitical cement slabs that would house 70,000 families. What Lindsay Wants Current planning calls for housing for 5,000 to 20,000 families with a wide range cf income levels.

The mayor also wants the plans to include a park or recreational attraction that will draw New Yorkers to the island. Almost as varied as the plans for the island are the proposals for a new name. The island has had many names. It was called Minnahanonck by the Indians who sold it to the Dutch governor. He doHrd it Varcken (Hog) Island, but when the Br.ish took over New Amsterdam, they pronounced It Perkins.

Later, it became Manning's Island, for Capt. John Manning, a British officer who lttreated there after rather ingloiiously ending his military career by surrendering New York tack to the Dutch in 1673. When Manning's stepdaughter married Robert Blackwel), the island became Blackwell's Island, and it bore the name fcx nearly 250 years. It was changed to Welfare Island in 1921, at a closed meeting of the Board cf Aldermen. New Yorkers never had a chance to voice theiT preference, and all protests and petitions to change it back were quietly shelved.

A Leading Contender Today, the leading contender seems to be East River Island, but the eventual name will probably depend upon the future use of the island. At. the northern tip cf Island stands a stone lighthouse bufit years ago by an inmate of the old City Penitentiary. On it, in crudely carved capital letters, is this legend: "This stone work was done by John McCarthy Who built, the lighthovse. from the bottom to the All ye that do pats by May pray for his soul nhen he dies." For centuries, the old lighthouse and the island on which it stands have seen many nayfar-ers arid life and progress pass them by.

A new. -and. hopefully brighter, future seems over the horizon. Welfare Island. A new day ahead? tunnel, estimated to cost about $75 million, will be a double-decker, four-track affair.

The two lower tracks, with no exit on the island, wilr serve the Long Island Rail Road and give commuters iheir first easy access to Manhattan's east side. The two upper tracks, opening nto a station on the island, will he the subway line, and will open Welfare Island for business. What kind of business? Over the years, numerous plans have stirred discussion and then gathered dust. Seme planners think it should he used to provide low-cost housing. Others feel it should be turned into a park, along the lines of Denmark's Tivoli Gardens, with good restaurants and amusements among the trees and lawns, pools and fountains.

Combination Urged In August, Real Estate News asked for a plan that would combine low-income housing and a public park. This would enable the city to move slum dwellers into decent housing without having first to tear down buildings to put up new ones. The Parks Department in January had announced plans to build a park for the handicapped of the city between the wings of Goldwnter Hospital. fare Island a definite candidate for development of a television city in New York. Proposals for such a center in Manhattan have always been defeated by the high cost of real But spokesmen there say that the design has been cancelled "for the moment." George T.

Delacorte, the New York publisher who gave the Central Park Zoo its delightful chfcdren's clock, plans to build an illuminated fountain at the southern tip of the island, near the water's edge. A jet would send the spray 400 feet in the air. making it visible for miles. I Queens is expected to V.e completed. Flans include carving a cubway station out of the rock cn Welfare Island, opening it, for the first time to rapid mass trans portatioD.

Bridge Opens in 1909 It was 272 years after Dutch Governor Wouter van TwiUer bought the island from the Indians (in 1637) before it could be reached by any means other than boat or ferry. It was not until 1909 that the Queensboro Bridge was opened, with a mighty foot planted on each side of the island, across from Manhattan's 59th St. (It actwily nhotih hars brni Iht Sijcty-First Street Riiilfir, tut political hoeust-jiofHS worn! it two blorks fonih. The nban-cntd nrigiiinl pirrs rtilj jut above the learer of the nest chaHuel across from 61st ST.y Visitors afoot or in cars reach the island from the bridge by way of a unique 10-stoiy structure a combination storehouse and elevator building. Elevators take visitors down from the first floor to the 10th floor, at the bottom.

the- Vy ojrencd a lift fridge tftmnmg the cast channel The island's setting makes it ideal for a college campus, and some of the granite buildings of the old Metropolitan Hospital have a decidedly "academic" atmosphere. The large area of unused or underused grounds makes Wei- estate and the hopeless, snarl of traffic. On Welfare Island, there is plenty of room for outdoor locations, for offices and sound stages. The old Metropolitan buildings might be converted into sound stages and studios. A Housing Plan A TV city on Welfare.

Island could help keep the industry in the country's communications center, and also provide tax revenue an important part of all plans for the island. The most recent active plan, endorsed and diligently supported by Mayor Lindsay, is actually a plan for a plan. At this point, it involves the formation of a nonprofit corporation that would finance studies for specifications. These would be provided to architects, who then, would -djaw. pp designs for the island.

SOUND OFF! What shall we do with Welfare Island What would you name it Send your suggestions to ISLAND, THE NEWS, P.O. BOX 1475, Grand Central Station, New York,.