Lincoln Recovery Center

Written by Jeremy Iannucci and Sarwat Yunus

The Lincoln Recovery Center represents the past, present, and future of community activism; indeed it was a driving force behind creating space and resources for an underserved and politically neglected population. The hospital facility was built in 1931 on this site of a former public school annex, and was designed by William H. Gompert (1875 -1946), then the architect and superintendent of school buildings for the New York City Board of Education. Built under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s federal Works Progress Administration (WPA), this yellow-brick building, then called the Mott Haven Medical Center, was later transformed into the drug rehabilitation branch of the Lincoln Hospital located several blocks to the north. The two main floors, basement level, and terrace level make up 8,500 square feet of space that is currently sitting vacant. Remnants of its past can be seen in the decorative metal plaques bearing...

Written by Jeremy Iannucci and Sarwat Yunus

The Lincoln Recovery Center represents the past, present, and future of community activism; indeed it was a driving force behind creating space and resources for an underserved and politically neglected population. The hospital facility was built in 1931 on this site of a former public school annex, and was designed by William H. Gompert (1875 -1946), then the architect and superintendent of school buildings for the New York City Board of Education. Built under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s federal Works Progress Administration (WPA), this yellow-brick building, then called the Mott Haven Medical Center, was later transformed into the drug rehabilitation branch of the Lincoln Hospital located several blocks to the north. The two main floors, basement level, and terrace level make up 8,500 square feet of space that is currently sitting vacant. Remnants of its past can be seen in the decorative metal plaques bearing the symbol of medicine on either ends of its facade, and in the engraved words, “Department of Health,” mounted above the second floor windows. As it sits tucked away on a cul-de-sac, shuttered and slowly but surely dilapidating, this modest building continues to hold an important place in hearts of the people of Mott Haven. The unassuming South Bronx institution functioned as a critical drug rehabilitation center before being vacated in 2010, after authorities reduced the rehab program and move it to the primary hospital premises located on 149th Street.

The inception of the Mott Haven Medical Center can be traced to The Home for the Colored Aged. Opened by the Society for the Relief of Worthy Aged Indigent Colored Persons and founded in 1839, the facility served as a home for the elderly Black population of the city. Many of its early residents had been enslaved before slavery was abolished in New York State in 1827. At that time, African Americans were excluded from white-run homes for the aged, making this a sorely needed resource. The Society’s original home was located on West 51st Street just off of the Hudson River, but as the institution’s population grew and healthcare was added to its list of services, the Society began to expand its facilities, moved its operations to larger spaces, and undertook significant renovation projects in order to accommodate its increasing number of patients. 

Located on 140th Street, the Lincoln Recovery Center (called the Lincoln Medical Center at this time),  was meant to complement the main Lincoln Hospital, providing a wider scope of healthcare services to the patients in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, it failed to serve the community as intended. Lincoln Hospital was the only hospital in the South Bronx during the 1960s, but it struggled to function efficiently. Like the main hospital, the Lincoln Recovery Center also faced issues with staffing and general hygiene; simultaneously, it was deteriorating due to lack of proper maintenance. The conditions were so poor that it sometimes resulted in patient deaths; indeed the neighborhood often referred to these facilities as the “butcher shop of the South Bronx." 

The dire situation came to a head in the early 1970s, after a patient named Carmen Rodriguez bled to death on a gurney (Porzig 2013). On July 14, 1970 the Young Lords retaliated and took over Lincoln Hospital for twenty-four hours, demanding a 10-point health program to provide better healthcare for the community. Gloria Cruz, health lieutenant for the Young Lords, pointed out that the hospital was not serving its purpose, and was working “under a capitalist system that only looks for profit.”

Within 15 minutes of the takeover, the Young Lords set up tuberculosis and lead poisoning detection clinics, as well as day care and withdrawal treatment centers. They ran these health programs for a full twenty-four hours before the New York Police Department surrounded the building and negotiated a peaceful de-occupation. Not long after the takeover, a group of radical doctors, psychiatrists, and community leaders, began the Lincoln Detox Community Program, pioneering the use of acupuncture and Reiki as an alternative to methadone for treating heroin addiction. They also tailored the drug recovery program to take into consideration the patient’s gender, the first in the United States to do so (Bagchee). Renamed the Lincoln Recovery Center, the 140th Street location was more than just a provider of alternative healthcare. In addition to counseling and a variety of other therapeutic and educational services, it had also become a space of community building. The takeover had emboldened and inspired people in the community to take a stand against unjust systems. The former staff and patients continue to express how important the radical treatment program at the Recovery Center was in the lives of the community, helping many during a time when they were unable to get prompt  assistance elsewhere. 

This building matters to the community because it is a tangible reminder of how the South Bronx has ovethrown discriminatory systems. The 2010 decision to move the Recovery Center from its four-story facility on East 140th Street to the basement of the Belvis Diagnostic Treatment Center on East 142nd Street was met with strong opposition from the former staff, patients, and supporters. Unfortunately, with the growth of Lincoln Hospital and the industrialization of the healthcare system, the dynamic between patients and medical practitioners has shifted into a more depersonalized state. (Lincoln 2013) Further, the vacant Lincoln Recovery Center site has been subject to intense property speculation. Reviving the activism agendas of the Young Lords and the Black Panthers, multiple organizations of the Mott Haven community have banded together and voiced their desire for the empty structure to be put in the hands of the community. The building has been envisioned as a community and wellness center, an incubator space for community-based organizations, an arts space, and a performance hall, all of which are absent from the surrounding neighborhood. For now, the Lincoln Recovery Center, a symbol of both past and present activism within the community, faces an uncertain future.

(December 2017)