Save Ellis Island

Save Ellis Island is a United States nonprofit organization established in 1999 to help preserve, rehabilitate, and interpret the largely unrestored historic buildings on the south side of Ellis Island in New York Harbor. The organization works in partnership with the National Park Service, which administers Ellis Island as part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. Its principal focus is the former Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital complex, a group of 29 buildings that played a major role in the medical examination and treatment of immigrants arriving in the United States. Ellis Island served as one of the country’s principal immigration processing centers after opening in 1892. More than 12 million immigrants passed through the island before the immigration station ceased operating in 1954. The island’s South Side hospital complex addressed a less frequently remembered part of that history: the medical screening, treatment, quarantine, and sometimes exclusion of immigrants who arrived with illness or disability. The hospital was a large United States Public Health Service institution with approximately 750 beds. It treated more than 1.2 million patients, including immigrants suffering from tuberculosis, measles, diphtheria, trachoma, and other contagious diseases. The complex also included obstetric, psychiatric, contagious-disease, laundry, and mortuary facilities, and more than 350 births were recorded there. After the hospital buildings were closed, the South Side complex remained inaccessible and deteriorated for roughly six decades. Save Ellis Island was created to bring public attention and private support to the site and to coordinate preservation activity with federal authorities. In 2001, the organization entered an agreement with the National Park Service to coordinate fundraising and oversee historic-preservation work on Ellis Island. Its role has included raising money, supporting stabilization and restoration, and helping make the hospital complex available for public interpretation. Early work included restoration of the South Side’s ferry building, whose rehabilitation was completed by Save Ellis Island and the National Park Service on April 2, 2007. Restoration of the hospital area began in 2000, with exterior work and interior restoration advancing in 2006. The reported cost of that phase of work was $6.4 million. These projects addressed a portion of a much larger preservation challenge involving 29 mostly unrestored buildings. A major public-facing turning point occurred on October 1, 2014, when the previously shuttered hospital complex opened to visitors for the first time in approximately 60 years. The opening enabled visitors to encounter the medical and public-health dimensions of immigration history in the original setting. Save Ellis Island’s work therefore combines historic preservation, fundraising, public education, and heritage interpretation rather than the sale of conventional consumer products. Its public identity is closely associated with the preservation of Ellis Island’s South Side and with expanding the historical narrative of Ellis Island beyond the better-known immigration-processing buildings on the island’s north side.

Save Ellis Island was founded in 1999 as a nonprofit organization concerned with the preservation of Ellis Island’s South Side buildings, especially the former Immigrant Hospital complex. Ellis Island is part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument and is historically associated with the processing of more than 12 million immigrants between 1892 and 1954. While the island’s principal immigration station is widely recognized, its South Side hospital complex documents the medical screening, treatment, quarantine, and public-health infrastructure that accompanied immigration processing. The hospital was a substantial United States Public Health Service facility with approximately 750 beds. It treated more than 1.2 million patients during its operating history. Immigrants were examined and treated for diseases including tuberculosis, measles, diphtheria, and trachoma, while the site also supported obstetric, mental-health, contagious-disease, laundry, and mortuary functions. More than 350 babies were born at the complex. The buildings provide evidence of the medical standards and institutional procedures used to determine whether arriving immigrants could enter the country. Following the closure of the immigration station and hospital operations, the South Side buildings were shut for about 60 years and became vulnerable to deterioration. Save Ellis Island developed a preservation role centered on fundraising, project coordination, and public advocacy. In 2000, restoration work on the hospital area began. In 2001, Save Ellis Island entered an agreement with the National Park Service to coordinate fundraising and oversee historic-preservation activities on Ellis Island. The relationship placed the organization’s work within the federal stewardship framework governing the national monument. Restoration activity expanded in the middle of the 2000s. Exterior work and interior restoration were undertaken in 2006, with the reported cost of that work reaching $6.4 million. On April 2, 2007, Save Ellis Island and the National Park Service completed restoration of the ferry building located in the central portion of the island. This was described as the first completed project associated with the organization’s preservation program. The organization’s work eventually supported a transition from a closed and deteriorating complex to a site accessible for public interpretation. On October 1, 2014, the South Side hospital complex opened to visitors for the first time in approximately six decades. The opening highlighted a previously underrepresented aspect of Ellis Island’s history: the experiences of immigrants who required medical attention and the role of the public-health service in deciding who could enter the United States. Save Ellis Island’s historical significance lies less in a commercial product portfolio than in its stewardship and interpretation mission. It operates as a preservation nonprofit and National Park Service partner, using fundraising and visitor engagement to support the stabilization, restoration, and public understanding of the 29-building hospital complex. Its work broadens the Ellis Island narrative from a story of arrival and immigration processing to one that also includes illness, treatment, quarantine, disability, institutional medicine, and the human consequences of immigration regulation.

• 2014

  South Side hospital complex opens to visitors

  [1]Save Ellis Islanden.wikipedia.org

  The hospital complex opened to visitors on October 1 after approximately 60 years of closure, allowing public interpretation of the site’s medical history.

• 2007

  Ellis Island Ferry Building restoration completed

  [1]Save Ellis Islanden.wikipedia.org

  Save Ellis Island and the National Park Service completed restoration of the Ferry Building on April 2.

• 2006

  Exterior and interior restoration advances

  [1]Save Ellis Islanden.wikipedia.org

  Exterior work and interior restoration proceeded on the hospital complex, with the reported phase costing $6.4 million.

• 2001

  Partnership agreement with the National Park Service

  [1]Save Ellis Islanden.wikipedia.org

  Save Ellis Island entered an agreement with the National Park Service to coordinate fundraising and oversee historic-preservation work on Ellis Island.

• 2000

  Hospital-area restoration begins

  [1]Save Ellis Islanden.wikipedia.org

  Restoration work began on the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital complex.

• 1999

  Organization founded

  [1]Save Ellis Islanden.wikipedia.org

  Save Ellis Island was established as a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the historic buildings of Ellis Island’s South Side.

A nonprofit historic-preservation partner focused on rescuing, restoring, and interpreting Ellis Island’s South Side hospital buildings and the medical history of American immigration.

• Historic preservation · 1999

  Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital preservation program

  Save Ellis Island’s central program supports the stabilization, restoration, and interpretation of the 29 mostly unrestored buildings that formed the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital complex. The work addresses a major but less familiar part of Ellis Island’s history: medical examinations, treatment, quarantine, and public-health administration affecting immigrants arriving in the United States. The program is carried out in partnership with the National Park Service through fundraising, project coordination, and visitor access.

• Heritage education · 2014

  South Side hospital visitor interpretation

  The public-access and interpretation work associated with the South Side hospital complex enables visitors to explore buildings that had been closed for roughly six decades. It presents the hospital’s role in treating immigrants and explains the relationship between immigration processing and public health, including the treatment of contagious diseases and the operation of specialized medical facilities.

• 2014

  Open the South Side hospital complex to visitorsOther

  Background

  The hospital complex had been closed for approximately 60 years, limiting public awareness of its role in immigrant medical care.

  Action taken

  Save Ellis Island and its National Park Service partner opened the complex to visitors on October 1.

  Aftermath

  The opening expanded public interpretation of Ellis Island to include medical treatment, quarantine, public health, and the experiences of immigrants who received medical attention.

  Source

• 2001

  Formalize a preservation partnership with the National Park ServiceStrategy

  Background

  The South Side hospital buildings required coordinated fundraising and historic-preservation management within a federally administered national monument.

  Action taken

  Save Ellis Island entered into an agreement with the National Park Service to coordinate fundraising and oversee preservation work on Ellis Island.

  Aftermath

  The agreement established the organizational framework for subsequent restoration projects and public access to the hospital complex.

  Source

1. 1Save Ellis Islanden.wikipedia.org
2. 2Save Ellis Island official websitesaveellisisland.org