Events - Event View

Separated from Manhattan by 300 yards of the East River, Roosevelt Island served as a place to pasture swine for the Dutch, and later as the Blackwell family farmland. In the early 19th century, the city bought the island and for 100 years used it to house the unsavory services of a prison and a madhouse. In the last few decades, it has become a thriving mixed-income town built from a Master Plan. And major changes are happening.

Meet: On Roosevelt Island in front of the tram station.

For those who would like to join us, we will be having lunch at Anything At All in the Graduate Hilton Hotel on Roosevelt Island.

Our Tour Guide: Joyce Gold

Manhattan historian Joyce Gold has long been conveying her enthusiasm about New York City history. Her current specialty—custom-designed private walking tours. Through her company, Joyce Gold History Tours of New York, she guides visitors and New York City residents through dozens of Manhattan neighborhoods to rave reviews.

She is the author of two books on specific districts—Lower Manhattan and Greenwich Village—and has contributed to numerous publications, including The Encyclopedia of New York City. A guest on podcasts, radio, television, and Cunard ocean liners, she has taught Manhattan history for 30 years at The New School University and New York University. The New York Times has called her “the doyenne of city tour guides,”

Joyce received a B.A. in English Literature from Queens College in New York and an M.A. in Metropolitan Studies from New York University.