For enough cheese, Rat Island is yours

BY Tanyanika Samuels
Want to buy an island in the Bronx?
For an asking price of $300,000, you can claim ownership to Rat Island. The 21/2-acre rocky islet a half-mile east of City Island in the northeast corner of the borough offers sweeping views of Long Island Sound - and nearby Hart Island, with its Potters Field, where the city's unclaimed dead are buried.
"It's an interesting little spot," said Amanda Brennen, a City Island resident whose now-retired father, Red Brennen, owns the island.
"We just really don't have much use for it," she said.
There's speculation about just how the island got its name. But, for sure, any rats who once resided there are long gone, family members said.
One story goes that when prisoners, nicknamed "rats," escaped from Hart Island, they paused on the island to catch their breath before swimming on toward City Island.
Recorded history on the islet dates back to the 1600s, when it was part of a large land purchase by Thomas Pell.
While historical details are sketchy, some published reports noted that the island was used as a small quarantine hospital during the yellow fever scares of the 1880s.
According to a Wikipedia entry, "There is a purple-bluish 'beach' made of mussel shells on the west side of the island with some reed grass. The highest point on the island is usually covered in Gull bird guano and is underwater during high tide storms."
The island changed hands between public and private entities over the years.
Red Brennen, 70, speaking from his current home in Jupiter, Fla., said he became intrigued with the "pile of rocks" in the late 1960s, thinking it would be useful for his marine salvage business. He finally bought it from a Brooklyn lawyer in 1972.
Over the years, Brennen used it mostly for storing marine construction equipment and for breaking up salvaged barges.
"I used to have a lot of junk on there," he said. "It wasn't attractive all the time. But I auctioned everything off a long time ago, and now it's pristine."
The island has long outlived its usefulness, at least for the Brennen clan. Now, they're ready to sell. "It's a nice, unique spot," Red Brennen said. "I cleaned it up in anticipation of selling it. So I'm just waiting on offers. Only serious ones, though. No tire-kickers."
To make a "serious offer," call (718) 928-6598.