The Quarantine Islands: Hoffman and Swinburne
Hoffman and Swinburne Islands are viewable from the shoreline of South Beach or from the eastbound lane of the Verrazanno-Narrows Bridge. But their history is not commonly known. They were not always islands. In fact, they were simple sandbars during the mid-1800s. After the famous burning of the Quarantine Hospital at Tompkinsville on September 1 and 2, 1858, something had to be done to accommodate the thousands of arriving immigrants with contagious diseases.
Patricia M. Salmon retired as Curator of History at the Staten Island Museum in 2012. A Staten Island resident for almost fifty years, she was a Naturalist/Historian at Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve in that borough for eight years. Ms. Salmon has authored the books Realms of History: The Cemeteries of Staten Island, The Staten Island Ferry: A History, Murder & Mayhem on Staten Island and Staten Island Slayings: Murderers and Mysteries of the Forgotten Borough. A board member of the Tottenville Historical Society, she is a consultant to the Friends of Abandoned Cemeteries of Staten Island and an adjunct professor at Wagner College in Staten Island.