Neponsit Beach Hospital , also known as Neponsit Beach Hospital for Children, Neponsit Hospital , Neponsit Children's Hospital , and various other names, is a former municipal tuberculosis sanatorium located adjacent to Jacob Riis Park and the Neponsite community on the western tip of the Rockaway peninsula in Queens, New York City. Initially oriented to the treatment of children, hospitals were treated by military veterans during and after World War II, but closed in 1955 due to a decreased need for hospital tuberculosis. After that, he operated as Neponsit Home for the Aged , then Neponsit Health Care Center , a nursing home run by the city until a controversial closure in 1998.
Video Neponsit Beach Hospital
Description
Neponsit Beach Hospital is located on the south side of Rockaway Beach Boulevard on West 149th Street (originally Mohawk Street), with beaches along the Atlantic Ocean coast at its southern edge. The hospital is located in the southeast corner of the Jacob Riis Garden property, adjacent to the Neponsit settlement section. It currently occupies a 5.6 hectare site (2.3 ha). The initial base is 14.3 hectares (5.8 ha) in size, extending westward to the roundabout in front of the park, and includes beaches on the beaches of Neponsit Bays 1 and 2.
The hospital consists of three buildings, two of them in front of the beach. The original building, built in 1915, was designed by McKim, Mead & amp; White company. It is a four storey high with a red brick facade. It is designed in the form of "U", with the east and west wings opening towards the beach. The balcony is open and the covered porch is located in a building facing the beach. Built with a capacity of 122 patients. Renovations were made to the building in 1938 and 1958. Adjacent to the original building was the residence of the nurse completed in 1941. It is the easternmost of the two buildings. It was designed by Dodge & amp; Architects Morrison, and was built as a Project of Progress Administration (WPA). It's also as high as four floors. Fronting Rockaway Beach Boulevard is a hospital power station, built at the same time as the nursing home. The building also includes hospital laundry facilities, male dormitories, and administrative centers. The fourth building, the parking garage then converted into an office, no more. The location of the hospital at sea provides patients with sun exposure and beach recreation.
The hospital originally contained two sets of murals, commissioned by the Works Progress Administration in 1938. The first collection of murals called "The Circus" was painted by Louis Schanker and located on four walls of the dining room. They consist of eleven panels depicting clowns and other circus characters. The second series of murals, called "Children at Work and Play", were created by Helen West Heller. 23 panels depict children taking part in games and activities, and including children with disabilities. Both artists use tempera paintings.
Neponsit Hospital is currently unused and in disrepair. In 2014, $ 266,000 is spent annually by NYC Health Hospitals for property maintenance and security.
The beach directly in front of the hospital (Neponsit Bay 1), now part of Riis Park, is popular among the gay community as well as the nudists. A fence, originally set up to separate the hospital from the park, then isolates this part of the rest of the beach until it was lowered by Hurricane Irene in 2011. The second fence west of Beach 149th Street separates Bay 1 from the Neponsit section of Rockaway Beach.
Transportation
Local buses Q22 and Q35 directly serve the hospital on Rockaway Beach Boulevard. Q22 runs from east to west across the Rockaway Peninsula. Q35 traveled between Rockaway Park and Brooklyn. The QM16 express route to Manhattan also operates on Rockaway Beach Boulevard. The closest New York City subway station is the 116th Street Rockaway Park-Beach station at IND Rockaway Line east of the hospital, linked by Q22 and Q35.
Maps Neponsit Beach Hospital
History
Development
Around the turn of the 20th century, the social journalist Jacob Riis (nickname for the future of Jacob Riis Park) advocated that children's hospitals be built in Rockaways, to treat an increase in cases of tuberculosis in the city. In 1904, the city planned to build a marine park in western Rockaways, supported by the Riis Association to Improve the Condition of the Poor. Association and Mayor of New York City George B. McClellan Jr. also lobbied for hospitals and "healing homes" to be established. On May 15, 1906, an act was passed in the State Legislature of New York allowing for the purchase of beach properties inside or outside the city for a maximum of $ 2.5 million. The action also allows some of the property to be leased for the manufacture of the hospital. On March 15, 1907, the New York City Council estimated to receive $ 250,000 from the Association to build a hospital for people with "non-pulmonary tuberculosis". The effort to develop the park (later called Seaside Park) and the hospital was suspended on November 1, 1907, due to panic in 1907, but was raised in 1909. The agreement between the Association and the Estimated Body was renewed in 1912. the land for what would be the Riis Park, 250 acres (100 ha) extending 1 mile (1.6 km) from east to west, was sold to the city in 1913 by Neponsit Realty Company, which developed the Neponsit environment. The site for the hospital was later transferred from the New York City Department of Parks on 24 April 1913.
The hospital is funded by private sources and built by the Association, before being submitted to the city. The money has been raised by the Association by 1906 and held in a trust. As part of their campaign, the Association shares pictures of a boy suffering from spinal tuberculosis at Sea Breeze Hospital in Coney Island, Brooklyn, who is tied to the board as part of his treatment. The boy is then called "Smiling Joe". The photos were included in letters sent by the Association, as well as in newspapers and magazines throughout the country. "Smiling Joe" also received visits from President Theodore Roosevelt and John D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller will pledge $ 125,000 for the project. Construction at the hospital began on January 28, 1914. It was known as Seaside Hospital . The hospital, which cost $ 250,000 to build, was completed on March 1, 1915, and handed over to the city the next day.
Initial history
Neponsit Beach Hospital for Children was opened on April 16, 1915. Neponsit Hospital is operated by the Bellevue organization and the Allied Hospital, a municipal institution that also operates Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. It replaces Sea Breeze Hospital, which is also operated by the Association, with children from Sea Breeze transferred to Neponsit. Upon opening, the hospital was exposed to the smell and smoke of a garbage disposal operation on nearby Barren Island (now Floyd Bennett Field).
In the 1930s and early 1940s, hospitals expanded as the Project Progress Administration (WPA), adding nursing residences and power plants. The expansion was first announced in November 1929 by the city hospital commissioner. William Schroeder, Jr. This project is intended to double the patient capacity of the facility. In June 1931, the allocation of $ 300,000 was made by the Council of Estimates for nursing homes. In December 1933, the city applied for a loan to fund the project. The sketch for the murals was approved as part of the Federal Art Project in October 1935. The first contract was awarded in December 1935, for power generation. The contract for the nurse's residence was awarded in 1938. In addition, WPA planned to plant 800 trees and make gardens on the hospital grounds, and added a 10-foot (3.0 m), 1,000 ft (300 m) sea-wall height. The power plant was completed in 1939, and work in the nurse's residence started shortly thereafter. The nurse's residence was completed in February 1941.
The hospital was temporarily closed on January 7, 1943 to save fuel during World War II. Also during the war, the fence separating Riis Park from the hospital grounds was established. The hospital was reopened on March 1, 1945, after the United States Public Health Service began hiring him to treat officers with tuberculosis. After the war, the Health Service continued to use hospitals for war veterans. After a brief extension of the lease, it was returned to the city in 1950.
Hospital closure and conversion to a nursing home
Neponsit Beach Hospital returned to municipal operations in the summer of 1950 after a minor renovation, and is now associated with Queens General Hospital in Jamaica. In July 1950, Neponsit Beach Hospital began operating as an attachment to Triboro Hospital for Tuberculosis (adjacent to Queens General), with 24 patients being transferred from Triboro to Neponsit. On June 19, 1952, the Queens Center Hospital was formed with the joining of the adjacent Queens General and Triboro Hospitals. Neponsit Beach Hospital, College Point Outpatient Department, and the Ozone ambulance station are also absorbed into a new medical center. Around this time, the city plans to renovate and expand Neponsit Hospital so that it can be used in public hospital capacity in case of emergency. The plan was compiled by the York and Sawyer companies in 1952. In July 1953, the Estimated Board approved the fire and electrical work for the hospital, including a fire ladder to replace the original wooden staircase.
However, in January 1955 the city decided to close Neponsit Beach Hospital due to a declining need for tuberculosis treatment. The hospital was vacated on February 1, 1955, with patients being transferred to Sea View Hospital or Triboro Hospital. Officially closed on 21 April 1955. The addition of $ 1 million planned to the complex was canceled; the plan was approved in 1956 solely for the York and Sawyer companies to be compensated.
After the closure of the hospital, the site was considered a "hot property", located on the beach in a fairly exclusive neighborhood of Neponsit. The hospital place is worth $ 1 million. Many groups have conflicting interests in the future of the site. New York City Park Commissioner Robert Moses wants to use the hospital grounds to expand Jacob Riis Park adjacent. Moses plans to undermine the hospital building to build a sports field, swimming pool, and convenience station, and to expand the beach. Moses also pointed out a clause in the 1906 action that provides land for the hospital, where it must be returned to the Department of Parks when it is not long used for the hospital. The US Department of Welfare proposed that hospitals be transformed into nursing homes. Local entrepreneurs such as the Rockaway Park Employers Association, backed by the Rockaways Chamber of Commerce, want to build houses on the property. The New York City Financial Supervisor, Lawrence E. Gerosa wants the property to be handed over to a private owner, to get it "back to the list of taxes". Gerosa may be influenced by Rockaway developers, a statement made by Moses. Locals, meanwhile, want the facility reopened as a public hospital, as an attachment or relocation of the Rockaway Beach Hospital, or converted into a school. These residents oppose Riis Park's plans, partly out of fear that the park's expansion will cause Riis visitors to "storm" adjacent beaches in Neponsit.
On June 29, 1955, the New York City Planning Commission unanimously approved Moses's plan to extend Riis Park. On July 21, 1955, the Council estimated picking 10 to 6 to block Moses garden plan. Those who oppose include five district presidents, as well as Gerosa who provides a plural voice. Two members who supported the park's expansion were Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. and city councilman Abe Stark, who each gave three votes. This led to the exchange of letters between Moses and Gerosa back and forth. After a lawsuit by the New York City Garden Association, on October 14, 1955, New York Attorney General Jacob K. Javits stated in advisory ruling that the city has no jurisdiction to sell the hospital as it is still a park. The decision had been requested by Moses. On October 27, New York Supreme Court Judge Peter M. Daly decided to support the Park Association, preventing sales. The decision was upheld by the Court of Appeals in Brooklyn on 9 July 1956.
On October 15, 1958, a compromise plan was proposed by Stark's board members and Wagner's Mayor. The plan involves converting a hospital to a nursing home proposed by the Welfare Department. The undeveloped land around it will be absorbed into Jacob Riis Park. The plan was approved by the New York City Estimate Council in February 1959. The renovations were made to the main building and the nurses' residence. The Neponsit Home for the Aged was dedicated and opened August 31, 1961. Among those present were members of the Stark town council, who urged the construction of more facilities such as the Neponsit House, due to the increasing elderly population in the city. These include the conversion of the previous Manhattan Beach Hospital (now the Kingsborough Community College site) in Brooklyn into a nursing home. At a cost of $ 2.4 million, Neponsit House is the first geriatric facility operated by city authorities in the city. Meanwhile, 10 acres (4.0 ha) of the property was handed over to the Department of Parks to expand Riis Park, adding 1,000 feet (300 m) of beach.
End of use and closing later
In July 1985 under Mayor Ed Koch, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), which operates a city-owned health facility, plans to transfer 10 patients diagnosed with HIV/AIDS from the Bellevue Hospital to the isolated wing of the Neponsit Home. The plan got opposition from the local community, due to concerns about disease transmission at the time. On July 31, a Queens judge blocked the move. Koch began to cancel the plan on September 3.
Between 10 and 12 September 1998, nursing homes were evacuated and closed after bricks fell from the roof of the building due to damage from the Labor Day storm that year. Residents of the house were forced to leave the facility in the middle of the night. The patient was transferred to Bellevue Hospital in Lower Manhattan, and Coler and Goldwater Hospital on Roosevelt Island. City officials under Mayor Rudy Giuliani stated that the buildings were in danger of collapsing, and that renovations were needed to make the facility structurally sound. Estimates made by an engineering firm on June 19, 1998 said it would need $ 1 million to renovate the facility; after closing, that figure rose to $ 50 million. After closing the house, the city initially planned to sell the site, to "return it to the tax list" according to deputy mayor Joe Lhota. The site is worth about $ 15 to $ 20 million. At the end of October, however, Lhota stated that the sale of the site was blocked by the deed restrictions on the property, based on a 1955 court ruling that prevented the sale of the hospital at that time. Meanwhile, allegations were made against Giuliani using a new tactic to justify the closure of health facilities, after efforts to privatize Coney Island Hospital, the Elmhurst Hospital Center, and Queens Hospital Center. There are also rumors about plans to develop hotels on the site. After the plan to sell the site failed, Giuliani and the city decided to destroy the hospital and develop a waterfront park on the site. The plan was announced October 28, 1998 by Giuliani and HHC. It was opposed by the local community. On October 30, 1998, Deborah Batts District Court Judge blocked the demolition of the building.
On November 2, 1998, the federal government issued a report on relocation, found that Health and Hospitals Corporation endangered the lives of 300 residents, and deceived them about plans to return to Neponsit's home. He also found that a hasty evacuation is not necessary. Based on the report, the Health Care Financing Administration fined HHC $ 3.050 per day for each day, former permanent resident in sub-par housing, for $ 450,000. In December 1998, part of the complex, Neponsit Adult Health Care Day that provided outpatient physical therapy, was transferred to the Young Israel synagogue gymnasium at Far Rockaway in Far Rockaway. The second court decision on 29 October 1999, stating that HHC overruled its authority when evacuating the facility, and blocked the demolition. Nevertheless, the Giuliani government continued to try and destroy the building. In March 2000, structural evaluations were conducted by the New York City Council, finding three Neponsit buildings in good condition, with an estimated $ 600,000 improvement.
After a lawsuit over the facility's closing by former residents and the Legal Aid Society, on June 2, 2003 under the administration of Michael Bloomberg, HHC agreed to pay $ 5 million out of court, with $ 18,000 for each patient or their property if they had died. In addition, the city should provide a notice in the future if it intends to transfer 100 or more patients to a nursing home. Rebuilding or site use, meanwhile, is limited due to the deed restrictions. On March 9, 2004, Neponsit Adult Health Care Day moved to a permanent location on Beach 102nd Street near Rockaway Park. In 2006, HHC considers plans to submit facilities to the city, and develop luxury homes on the site. This plan is opposed by local residents and politicians. An alternative plan from the community asks for a veterans rehabilitation center, or a children's hospital. Local politician Lew Simon, who opposed the city plan, said it would require "seven years" to rezone the land for other purposes. None of these plans are coming to fruition. In 2008, HHC spent $ 1 million to clear the debris on the property, and repair fences and windows. At the moment, the site is valued at $ 40 million.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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