Off New York’s coast, ‘Just Room Enough Island’ fits only one house and a tree

An island located in the Saint Lawrence River between Canada and the United States takes the meaning of a privacy to a whole new, but tiny, level. Adorably and accurately called “Just Room Enough Island,” the speck of land is considered the world’s smallest inhabited island. The site, also known as Hub Island, was purchased in the 1950s by a wealthy family, the Sizelands, who were looking to build a vacation home. It contains a single house, a tree shrubs and chairs that are placed right on the cozy island’s edge (h/t Atlas Obscura).

The island is one of 1,864 archipelagos in the river that separates New York and Ontario. The Thousands Islands chain stretches about 50 miles and includes islands that range in size from over 40 square miles to uninhibited rock developments.

To fall under the island classification, the piece of land must remain above water year-round and support at least two trees. Some of the other inhabited archipelagos in the chain contain much more than a single home. On Wellesley Island, considered part of Orleans in New York’s Jefferson County, there is a state park, a hotel, ice cream shop and a yacht house.

An article in the Washington Post from 2010 says Just Room Enough Island “squeezes a house and a couple of wrought-iron benches pushed hard up against the shingles onto its banks. One misstep and you’re swimming.”

[Via Atlas Obscura]

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