Revisit the long history of Davids Island, once a Civil War hospital: From lohud archives
Revisit the long history of Davids Island, once a Civil War hospital: From lohud archives
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Davids Island: Its history, what it looks like now
A look at Davids Island through the years.
Tania Savayan, tsavayan@lohud.com
Fort Slocum was an Army base on Davids Island off New Rochelle for more than a century.
On. Jan. 7, 1966, the fort was decommissioned and the final ferry made its way to the island, a skeletal firefighting crew remaining.
Davids Island, 90 acres off the shore of New Rochelle in Long Island Sound, has had more chapters than a Melville novel.
The French Huguenots came there and settled it when they developed New Rochelle.
It was named for Thaddeus Davids, who wanted to make ink on the island, not the first Davids Island dream that was never realized, and certainly not the last.
It was a Civil War hospital, nursing the wounded from Gettysburg and beyond. After the war, it became an arsenal and military defense for New York City, a tidy Army installation with barracks and batteries and parade grounds, a far cry from today's overgrown bramble.
On Jan. 8, 1966, as reported in The Reporter-Dispatch (a precursor of The Journal News and lohud.com), the base was decommissioned, and the final ferry slipped back to the island.
"The ferry makes its last trip to Fort Slocum, New Rochelle," the page one report read. "It returned to the island to be tied up there. The fort's last commanding officer, Lt. Col. Herbert Smallwood, and a military and civilian detail of workers left the island for the mainland yesterday. The Army installation ended more than a century of activity in mid-afternoon and will remain empty except for a 10-man fire-security force. New Rochelle hopes to acquire the property from the federal government."
Davids Island's military role faded to history, but eight months after it was shuttered, in August 1966, it became something altogether different: a zoo for quarantined animals.
The island just off the shore of New Rochelle inspired scores of unfulfilled dreams and schemes.
ConEd envisioned a nuclear power plant there. Didn't happen.
Donald Trump wanted towers to bear his name on the island and sunk a non-refundable half-million dollars into the project. Didn't happen.
In 2019, New Rochelle historian Barbara Davis told The Journal News that plans often ran awry because they lacked public access.
"People who know how fascinated I am with Davids Island often ask: 'Are we ever going to see anything happen to it in our lifetime?'" Davis said. "And I say: 'Well, it depends on how long you are planning to live.'"
The Journal News/lohud.com has been telling stories of the Lower Hudson Valley for generations. This regular column and photo feature takes a look back into our extensive archive.
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