BLACKWELL'S ISLAND

Why Change Its Name?

By Alexander J. Wall

Librarian New York Historical Society

This island, the name of which is so familiar to all New
Yorkers, has recently (April, 1921) been changed to
"Welfare Island" by action of the Board of Aldermen.
Without a public hearing or advance notice this change
was effected and the historic associations which the name
Blackwell has held for the interested inquirer are at once
dimmed and in time our local history is in this way
destroyed. For it is often the interest of people to know
how and why a street or locality received its name which
leads them to learn more of our local history and of the
individuals who helped to make it, inspiring them to seek
the pleasure of recalling the delightfulness of the past. In
this instance the name of Blackwell has been associated
with that island for 245 years and a sketch of its history
is here related:

It was known to the Indians as "Minnahanock," mean-
ing on or "at the Island," and was purchased from them
July 16, 1637, by Governor Wouter Van TwiIIer for his
estate. The Dutch named it "Varchen" Island, meaning
Hog. As early as August 30, 1642, a report of referees
as to improvements on Varchen Island made by Jan
Claessen Alteras shows that he had spent three hundred
gUders in the construction of a house, goat-pen, sowed
garden, and fences, which Governor WiIIiam Kieft was to
pay on account of the West India Company to Jan
Claessen Alteras. This is the earliest record of an in-
habitant on the Island after its purchase from the Indians.

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