October 08, 2005
Exploring secret Ellis Island during Open House NY
In the first half of the 1900s, the hospitals on Ellis Island housed 1.2 million patients hoping to get well enough to enter the United States. Thousands died there, and yet 353 babies were born there. (Though born on the wrong side of the immigration station, the babies weren't granted U.S. citizenship.)
Abandoned for decades, the main buildings on Ellis Island were eventually renovated and opened to the public as one of New York's top tourist attractions. But two-thirds of the island remains off-limits, pocked with broken windows, laden with asbestos and lead paint and trees growing inside buildings. Save Ellis Island hopes to raise enough money to repair all the buildings, but until then, they're off limits. That is unless you secured a spot on the annual Open House New York tour this weekend. It was the first time ever that members of the public were allowed to see the other side of the island up close.
"This is landfill, so there are sinkholes," park ranger Dennis Mulligan said Saturday morning as he led a small group of New Yorkers in hard hats through the rain.
The art deco "new ferry house," was built in 1934 to 1935 as a federal Work Act project during the Depression. The building, used for departures, sits just beyond the spot where the tourist ferry boat docks. Remnants of its ferry slip remain, jutting out of the water in haphazard fashion. At low tide only, you can see the top deck of a ferry boat that sunk in a storm during the years the island was abandoned.
The new ferry house, with its noble stone eagles perched at the top, has been completely refurbished on the outside and its stabilization process is nearly complete. Soon, bids will go out for the interior work. For now, windows are dirty and broken, paint is peeling, the ceiling isn't in one piece but there is a stunning old high-back wooden bench in one corner, covered with dust. This is the next building that will be opened to the public, but no date is scheduled.
Inside the contagious disease hospital of Ellis Island, the most southern section. If a patient was sick enough to get into these last three buildings, it meant "you’re not going to get well," ranger Mulligan said.
The balconies are structurally unsound and will be ripped out and rebuilt before the public ever gets to visit this side of the island. "We will re-create them," using some of the original materials, ranger Mulligan said.
This wide hallway connects the main building of Ellis Island to the departure ferry terminal and the hospital.
Hard hats were mandatory on the tour during OHNY.
Stones piled up in the courtyard of a hospital building.
There are about 30 buildings in the hospital complex, including a recreation hall where patients were entertained with bands and sometimes movies. The buildings have lots of windows, skylights and elaborate courtyards with benches. Remnants of the thick vines climbing the buildings remain in some places, while the copper ornamentation and rain gutters have held up despite the generations of neglect.
The island has its own "goose poop patrol dog" who was chosen for his resemblance to the Arctic fox, the natural predator of the Canadian geese whose presence is difficult to miss.
For pictures of the Ellis Island hospital before renovations began, see the photo galleries at Save Ellis Island.
Earlier: OpenHouseNY's Waldorf, Ellis Island tours already full
Ellis Island hospital, Navy Yard on Open House NY list
Celebrating the era of grand ocean liners
Shuttered Ellis Island buildings could open to public
Touring Gotham's archaeology with book in hand
October 8, 2005 08:05 PM in Architecture, History, Sightsology
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