January 03, 2005

Shuttered Ellis Island buildings could open to public

Save Ellis Island, a non-profit group, is gearing up for a $300 million fundraising drive in hopes of renovating the rotting medical buildings on the south side of Ellis Island, the Los Angeles Times reports. The plan is to eventually open it to tourists, adding to the primary exhibits at Ellis Island's main hall, which has been open to tourists since 1990. The site includes a French Renaissance-style hospital, laundry and kitchen rooms, psychiatric detention cells, a baggage and dormitory building, a theater, morgue and autopsy rooms. From the LA Times report:

Walking into these rooms, which have deteriorated through neglect, vandalism and exposure to the elements, is like stepping into a ghostly time capsule. They offer startling reminders of the immigrants: The sinks in the isolation rooms for tuberculosis victims are still in place, one for washing and another for spitting.

And outside the psychiatric detention cells there is legible graffiti, such as "This Is the New World" and "The Merry Go Round Broke Down."

January 3, 2005 06:09 AM in History

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