Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
Oct 19, 2026 · 35 min · 9 segments
It was called the Fag Ward: a separate wing of the men’s penitentiary on NYC’s Welfare Island where gay inmates were kept in the 1920s and ’30s. Eric digs into the history of the infamous prison on…
Eric MarcusHostTravis Lee RussGuestEmma DorfmanGuest167 acres of ruin, 167 acres of shame.
This once housed the infirm, insane, and corrupt.
For most of the 20th century, Welfare Island was known as the place New York put its undesirables.
Garbage is found all over the ground, the residue of years, the flowing tears.
[pensive music]
It's just a little slip of land in New York City's East River between Manhattan and Queens.
Its isolated location made it a perfect spot for places like the men's penitentiary and the fag ward.
And yet, like so many of New York's darker, run-down corners, much of the island's grime and that bad reputation has been swept away, polished away, and forgotten over time.
New York City bought it in the 19th century as a convenient home for many of its least loved institutions and was formally renamed Welfare Island in 1921.
After World War II, except for a couple of hospitals, the other institutions were closed and the island fell into steep decline.
And yet, after another name change in 1973, this time to Roosevelt Island, that one-time shell has been reimagined, gentrified, and beautified.
It's a place of constantly shifting character and identity, a place full of dark history that's also a very nice place for a picnic.
As we embarked on this project, I wanted to learn more about the fag ward's island home, this place with such a strange paved-over past.
167 acres of ruin, 167 acres of shame.
This once housed the infirm, insane, and corrupt.
For most of the 20th century, Welfare Island was known as the place New York put its undesirables.
Garbage is found all over the ground, the residue of years, the flowing tears.
[pensive music]
It's just a little slip of land in New York City's East River between Manhattan and Queens.
Its isolated location made it a perfect spot for places like the men's penitentiary and the fag ward.
And yet, like so many of New York's darker, run-down corners, much of the island's grime and that bad reputation has been swept away, polished away, and forgotten over time.
New York City bought it in the 19th century as a convenient home for many of its least loved institutions and was formally renamed Welfare Island in 1921.
After World War II, except for a couple of hospitals, the other institutions were closed and the island fell into steep decline.
And yet, after another name change in 1973, this time to Roosevelt Island, that one-time shell has been reimagined, gentrified, and beautified.
It's a place of constantly shifting character and identity, a place full of dark history that's also a very nice place for a picnic.
As we embarked on this project, I wanted to learn more about the fag ward's island home, this place with such a strange paved-over past.
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