Roosevelt Island's history

The "town historian" of Roosevelt Island is someone who takes her job very seriously.  She has books, photographs, documents, letters and newspaper articles about the Island filed and stacked on bookshelves in her bedroom, copies of The WIRE arranged chronologically in trunks in her storage room, and maps of the Island framed in her living room.

It is no wonder that Judith Berdy, 53 – all five feet, three inches of her – is quoted in every book, master's project and doctoral dissertation written about the Island in the past two decades.  She is happy to be treated as a resource, but says she would appreciate it if people give her a copy of what they write after she gives them a tour of the Island and all the background information.  "They promise me the world before the interview and then they disappear," says Berdy.  "I just want to see how it came out."

Apart from students, Berdy is contacted by people who want to tour the Island and learn about its history.  "Most of the time, they are people who live on the Upper East side and have been curious about the Island for the past twenty years or so," says Berdy.

Last summer, Berdy received a call that puzzled her.  It was from Linda Fairstein, who works for the Manhattan District Attorney's sex crimes unit. "I could not understand what anyone from the sex crimes unit wanted with me," says Berdy.  "I was relieved to find Linda Fairstein is a novelist and wanted to base her new murder mystery on Roosevelt Island."  Fairstein's book, The Deadhouse, due out later this month, is set partially on Blackwell's Island. The book's cover features the Renwick ruins located at the South end of the Island.

Constantly updating information about the Island's history, the latest Berdy has discovered is that the Blackwell family, which owned the Island in the 18th Century, was one of the first families in America to experiment with grafting on apple trees that grew on the Island.  "There are holes in the Island's history and my job as the president of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society is to fill them," says Berdy.

For the Society, which has nearly a hundred members, Berdy's dream is to have a permanent home.  "People suggest Blackwell House and want me to try to convert it into a museum but that is not practical.  First, it was not designed to be a research facility. Second, it is not large enough.  Also, we need a fresh, well-lit space that is not makeshift," says Berdy. Ideally, she thinks, a new office-cum-museum space in a restored Octagon building might be used.

Even though she never went to college, Berdy says she was always interested in history.  "I was the world's worst math student but I loved history.  I wanted to educate people about the Island's history ever since I began taking Oliver Chapin's historical tours on the Island," says Berdy, referring to the late vicar of the Church of the Good Shepherd, who had built up an impressive archive relating to the Island's history.

Having grown up in Manhattan, Berdy was aware of Roosevelt Island and moved to 580 Main Street in 1977.  "It was the only place I could find a decent apartment that was not a fifth-floor walk-up and the rent was less than $300."

Stretched out on a couch in her 13th-floor Island House apartment where she lives now, Berdy talks about the Island's history with a passion matched only by her love for her three cats, Speedy, Tatiana and Valentine.  The felines' pictures are in frames that sit right next to family portraits.

Berdy acquired her first cat in 1997.  "She was called Carmen Verandah because she came in through my backyard.  She used to bring me dead birds and, one day, she got locked in a closet and met with an untimely death."  Soon after, Berdy was interviewed for the ownership of a cat by a friend, who gave her Speedy.  A year later, Berdy brought Tatiana from a shelter.  Tatiana works as a volunteer therapy cat with patients at Coler-Goldwater Memorial Hospital.

On Valentine's Day in 1999, Berdy was asked if she would take care of a cat who was being ill-treated by its owner.  "I brought Valentine home.  She was unkempt, shy and neurotic.  I nursed her and normalized her into being only slightly shy and neurotic," says Berdy.

"I am not a crazy cat lady," she declares emphatically.  "I will not go out in the middle of the night to rescue stray cats."  Even so, Berdy admits she will not get married because there is no place for a man in her apartment, thanks to the cats.  "I even got rid of the sofa-bed in my living room.  I like to think of myself as friendly and hospitable.  But my apartment is not for overnight stays.  Here, it is just me and my cats."

A typical day for Berdy begins at 7:00 a.m. when Speedy jumps on her, demanding food.  Between 8:30 and 4:00, she is at work in her family's garment business in Manhattan and then, she says, her second life begins when she comes home.  Berdy is active on the Common Council of RIRA, the Roosevelt Island Resident's Association, active in the Jewish congregation on the Island, in the Historical Society, and she is part of almost every community activity, be it raising funds for the families of the victims of the World Trade Center attacks or having people sign posters encouraging the firefighters.  "I'm not very philosophical," says Berdy.  "I am hands-on.  I am an action person.  I am curt and blunt, curt and abrupt.  I don't plan too much, I just raise money or do what needs to be done."

Everyone who knows her agrees.  "Judy is an extremely hard worker for the benefit of the Island," says Carole Kennedy, who has known Berdy for the past two decades and works with her in the Historical Society.

"Judy deserves a lot of appreciation for the work she has done for the Island," says Nancy Cruickshank, who worked with Judy on The WIRE in the 1980s.  "She is always upbeat and dedicated, looking for ways to contribute."  Cruickshank added that she thinks Berdy is quite an adventurer.  "Judy went down 800 feet in a construction cage into a water tunnel near the community garden when she got the chance," recalls Cruickshank.

Berdy also took part in a practice rescue operation from the Tram where she had to climb out of the Tram's window, mid-air, into a bucket seat that lowered her into a diver's seat.  "If anyone can represent Roosevelt Island, it is Judy.  I hope she writes a book about Roosevelt Island some day," Cruikshank said.

When asked if she would, Berdy smiled.  "You do it," she says.