--- title: Hillary Clinton Roosevelt Island Campaign Event: Story Behind the Site description: Roosevelt Island has only been called that since 1973 canonical: https://time.com/3910610/roosevelt-island-clinton/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-13T15:30:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:00.404Z article:section: History og:title: Hillary Clinton Roosevelt Island Campaign Event: Story Behind the Site og:description: The political history of a former prison colony og:url: https://time.com/3910610/roosevelt-island-clinton/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8989b1b016921fc6/6988532acd68488e7b0a0344/roosevelt-island.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Roosevelt Island og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton Roosevelt Island Campaign Event: Story Behind the Site twitter:description: The political history of a former prison colony twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8989b1b016921fc6/6988532acd68488e7b0a0344/roosevelt-island.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton's Campaign Launch Site Once Held the Worst Prison in the World > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Hillary Clinton's Top 10 Political Moments [Watch (HLS stream): Hillary Clinton's Top 10 Political Moments](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/L3I0gpwt.m3u8) (1:49)  _Published 2015-04-09. Watch the top 10 moments from Hillary Clinton's career in politics._  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jun 13, 2015 3:30 PM UTC  Aerial view of Roosevelt Island and Four Freedoms Park Aerial view of Roosevelt Island and Four Freedoms Park Keith Sherwood—Getty Images/Flickr RF  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jun 13, 2015 3:30 PM UTC On Saturday, Hillary Clinton will celebrate the [official launch](http://time.com/3903504/hillary-clinton-campaign-launch-new-york/) of her presidential campaign in a part of New York City that may be unfamiliar to many non-residents: Roosevelt Island. The narrow stretch of land in the East River between Manhattan and Queens is named after President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Clinton’s staff has [noted](http://time.com/3903504/hillary-clinton-campaign-launch-new-york/) that the candidate has long been inspired by FDR and his wife Eleanor. But the island wasn’t always a political homage. Early names [included](http://rioc.ny.gov/history.htm) Minnahanonck, Hog Island, Blackwell’s Island and, as of 1921, Welfare Island. And Welfare Island was, as TIME [noted](http://time.com/vault/issue/1934-02-05/page/17/) in 1934, “not a nice place to visit and nobody would want to live there.” It was home to the New York County Penitentiary, which the state’s Commissioner of Correction had just proclaimed the worst prison in the world, and a “vicious circle of depravity that is almost beyond the ability of the imagination to grasp.” By the 1960s, the island was seen as a waste of valuable land. In 1961, as TIME [reported](http://time.com/vault/issue/1961-05-26/page/56/), real-estate developers came up with a plan to cover the two-mile-long strip of “nurses’ homes, hospitals for the aged and poor, and homes for wayward girls” with a concrete platform that could hold enough housing for 70,000 New Yorkers. It was envisioned as a residential paradise, with postcard views and no cars allowed. And a new name, of course. On Sept. 24, 1973, New York City’s mayor, John Lindsay, [proclaimed](http://www.laguardiawagnerarchive.lagcc.cuny.edu/FILES%5FDOC/Microfilms/05/009/0000/00001/050296/05.009.0000.00001.050296.10491973.pdf) Franklin D. Roosevelt Island Day in the city and officially re-dedicated the island in his honor. “This act signifies recognition for a man whose capacity for moral leadership gave much to our City, our State and our Nation,” Lindsay said in his proclamation. “It also heralds the transformation of an island that has too long been forsaken. It is altogether appropriate that Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose vision and vivacity re-invigorates and inspires this nation, should have named for him an island which is at last being reclaimed by and for the people of the City of New York.” Clinton surely hopes to find that her “vision and vivacity” inspire the nation too—and launching her campaign on the island that bears FDR’s name is one way to start. **_Read about the 1976 opening of the Roosevelt Island tram, here in the TIME Vault:_** [The Little Apple](http://time.com/vault/issue/1976-05-24/page/52/) ## Transcript You know, I'm not sittin' here some little woman standing here by my man like Tammy Wynette. I'm sittin' here because I love him, and I respect him. Now is our chance to beat the historical odds, and give the American people the health security they need. If there is one message that echoes forth from this. Let it be that human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights once and for all. The great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast right- wing conspiracy that has been conspiring. Against my husband since the day he announced for president. I would be happy to, when you give me the signed letters. Well, right here. Right here. When you give me. Right here. Sign it right now. We'll shake. We'll shake on this, Ray. No, no, I want your signature, cause I think that everybody wants to see you signing something that you said you were for. You know, I have so many opportunities from this country. I just don't wanna see us fall backwards. Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it. The battle to stop Al Qaeda and its affiliates. Does not end with one death. What difference, at this point, does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, Senator. I took the unprecedented step of asking that the state department make all my work- related emails, [ MUSIC ] Public for everyone to see. 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