Randall's Island takes its name from Jonathan Randall, who purchased it in 1784, and made it his home for nearly fifty years. Beginning opposite One Hundred and Fifteenth street, and extending northward to near the Westchester line, it forms the last of that group of beautiful islands that adorns the East river, and from the uses to which they have been appropriated, form a sort of moral rampart to the great metropolis. Originally, like all its sister islands, it appeared like one of nature's failures, its surface being so largely covered with malarious swamps, and surmounted with hills of granite. It was transferred to the city of New York, in 1835, for the sum of $50,000. The sites for the present buildings, with their handsomely arranged grounds and charming gardens, have been prepared at the unavoidable outlay of vast sums. About thirty acres of the southern portion are under the control of the "Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents," and occupied by the House of Refuge, while the northern, and much larger portion, is controlled exclusively by the "Commissioners of Charities and Corrections," who have here located what they denominate the "Nurseries." These form the juvenile branch of the Almshouse department, the adults, except such as assist in taking care of the children, being provided for and retained on Blackwell's Island.

The Nurseries consist of three departments, viz.: The buildings for the healthy children, the Infant Hospital, and the Idiot Asylum. There are six large buildings for the healthy children, several hundred feet apart, grouped together, though arranged on no special plan, near the centre of the island. They are constructed of brick, three stories high, some of which are furnished with outside corridors, are well arranged and kept in a very tidy and inviting condition. An assistant matron is placed in charge of each of these buildings, the whole being presided over by a warden and matron. A separate building contains the machinery for the washing, drying, etc. The inmates of these buildings are children over four years of age, abandoned by their parents, and taken by the police from the public streets, and children whose parents for the time are unable to support them. On arriving at the island they are placed in quarantine for several days, to guard against the spread of contagious diseases, where they are examined daily by a physician. If diseased they are sent to the hospital; if not they are distributed according to their age and sex among the other buildings. It is the aim of the Commissioners to make the Nurseries places of but temporary sojourn, and to cause their distribution among families as early as practicable. To this end parents are notified that no child may claim to be retained longer than three months unless its board be paid. If not reclaimed by their friends at the expiration of that time, the Superintendent of Out-Door Poor may apprentice such as are of proper age, or, if too young, adopt them into families willing to take, and able to support and educate them. This wise regulation prevents the overcrowding of the buildings, and avoids the evils incident to massing large numbers of children together through those tender years when the habits of life are being formed. No child in full possession of its faculties is retained after it completes its sixteenth year. The grounds adjourning the buildings are ample, which at certain hours are made vocal by the white-aproned boys who trip and frolic with infinite merriment. Their diet is ample and nutritious, comprising a greater variety than is common in public institutions. The children while here receive the same instruction imparted to those of a similar age in the city, teachers being supplied by the New York Board of Public Instruction. The numbers annually admitted to the Nurseries vary from 1,800 to 3,000, according to the severity of the season. A large farm stretches over the northern portion of the Island, cultivated mainly by men detailed from the Workhouse and Penitentiary, and which affords most of the vegetables for the Nurseries.