Ellis Island Hard Hat Tour
This was the island of hope and the island of tears
This is where the tour starts and it's New Jersey! Ships didn't stop at Ellis Island, it is too small for the big boat. Boats stopped at New Jersey or New York and smaller boats brought people to Ellis Island. The first class passengers didn't go through processing. Passengers needed to pass medical before they went through other processing.
The medical exam was first - this was quick and letters were added Whitby blue chalk to indicate first decision. Then there was a second level exam- men and women separate and immigrants stripped down to nothing.
The goal was to admit people that would become tax paying citizens. Immigrants could be denied entry If they were found to have a mental defect, criminal record, Chinese laborer or have a contagious disease.
Once they finish processing they get to this corridor
When immigrants were cleared through medical and other processing they were brought to this hallway. It was the happiest place because you were ready to start your new life in America!
America was through these doors! I imagined the excitement and hope the immigrants coming and seeking a better life felt standing in this place.
Many items were stolen from the hospital after it was closed- this drill press was far too heavy!
Hurricane Sandy flooded the hospital and the high water mark left the bricks white and rusted doors.
Hard hat on and ready to explore the hospital areas.
This is the Y hallway - to the right was the hospital. To the left was infectious diseases. With no antibiotics many of these patients would die in the infectious diseases ward. Some were cured!
Right at the Y takes us to the hospital rooms
You can see the need for restoration.
This is a washing machine in the laundry room. This room will be left in arrested decay- it won't get worse but it won't get better. It allows us to see the deteriotikn and imagine what it was
This is what the washing machine looked like at one time
This was amazing at the time! An extractor that spun out the water!
Precursor to modern washing machines spin cycles
Love these doors and staircases!
This is the first Jean Rene art piece I saw- so beautiful! I loved these art installations in the space where these people were!
Outside of the hospital
This picture is of patients in this caged area. It is the space for the mentally unstable. This allowed them fresh air while keeping them from the rest of the hospital campus.
This is the only picture taken in this exact spot installed at the same spot. Powerful. Sadly, some of these people were not mentally ill, but confused. The guide talked about how some of us would react to the constant swaying of a boat during a journey with inadequate food and isolation in a ships hold, plus not speaking the language of the interviewers. After some time here with good food, fresh air and no swaying they recovered.
People were insane perhaps because of the journey and sickness around them. Here they slept in a bed that wasn't rocking and had a good meal and eventually spoke with a doctor with an interpreter
I feel that way after a long drive in a car. I can't imagine the water movement of a journey across the Atlantic!
There were several chairs left and they add a haunting dimension to the emptiness of the hospital
Florence Nightengale influenced the hospital design. She recommended doctors and nurses wash hand between patients, also to isolate patients by disease (TB, measles etc)
There were no antibiotics yet. - use fresh air and sunshine to help them heal themselves. She was ahead of her time.
Lots of windows!!
More windows!
These girls were treated for favus disease. A very contagious fungus. Today there is an anti fungal medication to treat this. Not for these girls. Their heads were shaved and they were wrapped with fabric after a tar treatment. When they were cured they could return to their families.
What a face! I can't imagine this harsh treatment. I am thankful for medicine discoveries.
You can see the water through the windows! The journey that brought you there and may take you back. A bit haunting.
Before restoration
I love the staircases. Women were on the second floor and men on the first floor. Even pregnant women had to walk upstairs!!'
Look closely at this picture. People dressed in their best clothes. One woman is missing shoes. She was denied admittance because she was likely to become a social burden without means to have shoes.
This is the kitchen that had a nice copper hood above where the stove was and with the upside down picture it looked like a boat! There was water damage and the hood came off the wall. It will be restored one day.
You can see the craftsmanship
So much to restore
the menu- one kid told his mother that they were given worms and blood to eat; he wasn't Italian!
View from a side door
Records and supplies would have been kept here
A treatment room once full empty and a bit haunting.
The doors are beautifully aged
These staircases are lovely
I would like to have gone upstairs, I am not sure if the restoration is taking place there ... I forgot to ask! Shocking really that I missed that.
Another art installment. They are beautiful!
There were lightbulbs eventually and they looked like sconces
The radiator and a light cover
You can see the deterioration
Bricks 🧱 so many bricks to build this structure
Love these old doors
This is a large room where patients were separated by windows and radiators- they were social distancing and they are exactly 6 feet. They knew so much then!!
Love the chair here
Sweet faces hoping for a better life in America
The detail for the art installation was so neat. I could have looked much longer if time allowed
Look at his face!! The artist got part of his face on the cracked glass and the hard surface
Love this hallway. The lighting was just right naturally
Some shattered glass on the door looking into the staircase
For TB patients - they were isolated and locked in their rooms. They needed to split the flem in the small sink which was isolated from the other water supply to prevent spreading the germs to the other patients. Brilliant!
I tried to see if I would catch a ghost pic in the mirror. I have heard it's happened
Me again
Windows between rooms
The stairs are not safe to walk up, hopefully one day they will be!
The harbor that took them to America when they were healed
Patients were separated by windows to prevent touching each other (sound familiar?)
The coastguard took over the hospital when it was not needed for immigration and installed linoleum everywhere. Serious installation with linseed oil and a fabric underlay of some kind. That's a lot to remove!
Love that this picture of immigrants going up the stairs was placed on a wall with the staircase!
Another view
Some cracked glass
Another TB room. Just me
Me alone still
This room is where the sickest people were placed, they were all together and they could see the Statue of Liberty from this window. It likely brought some comfort that the next life would be better. Gave them some hope as they said goodbye to this earth.
Zoomed in Lady Liberty
Another view
The room was full of these views
This cracked stool is somehow perfect symbolism for the gravely ill patients that would never live in America. They made it and likely died in better comfort than had they stayed, aside from being separated from their family. The separation would have been hard, however hopefully comforting to know your family made it safely to America and they are not sick.
Patients likely felt dark as they looked out at the light
Early safety precautions - sounds so dangerous to me
The walls were not smooth because it was believed that germs wouldn't travel between hallways if they were rough. Fascinating!
Doctors at work to help patients. Many immigrants would not have been cured in their home countries. Here they had a chance.
These doctors had the most up to date tools for the time.
Maybe I shouldn't have smiled?
They had nice claw foot tubs to care for the patients.
A sink basin on the floor.
There are several of these round courtyards that have a tree and windows and that's all! You can see Wyatt walking on the left . I didn't get pictures of Nick or Wyatt here besides this peek!
I found this so beautiful!
Look at that hat and coat! I just love the hat fashion.
I love the through the window views anywhere I see them!
This picture shows people that would be denied entry. The US was practicing eugenics so maybe they saw something that concerned them. Such a sad practice!
Ears are too big to be in the US? These people were all deported. Eugenic thinking 🤔 what a dangerous 'science'
So many tiles
This shows doctors in the operating area. They had modern equipment for the time. There were strict rules on women that could be nurses, they must be unmarried and between 25-35 when they started work. They couldn't hug the patients ( a rule likely broken with children who were scared and hurting) I
I love the artist placing the picture here in the titles
So much suffering here!
I liked the floor and the tiles are neat.
This is the house shared by the head doctor and psychiatrist. The house is a huge duplex.
The families shared a staircase. Love this babushka face and the top statement. This Place Matters. 12 million immigrants through Ellis Island 1 in 4 Americans trace their history to one of them.
I loved this little door space under the stairs and the green and yellow paint.
Then I saw the doors waiting to be placed u see the stairs and more.
These windows you can step out of!
The green paint is still hanging out a bit!
Oh this fireplace and the family living here. There are many layers of paint from the years people changed it up!
Here is a picture of. Woman that did live here! The stocking were her dads
She wrote this letter about living in the house, so neat to have this record!
The brick at the other side!
Nice kitchen area- that stove looks so interesting!
View from a family space
Pictures of people looking toward the Statue of Liberty!
View to the right of the house
The view of the city from the house - I don't know what it would have been at the time people lived here!
I just couldn't resist catching pics of this lady of liberty!
The woman who lived here was happy to see the stencils she and her sister painted on a rainy day we're still in the closet!
Such a fun memory that sticks
Walking back from the house - oh both Nick and Wyatt in this pic .
The view of the hospital buildings
The steps of one of the buildings
We didn't visit the other part of Ellis island. I have been there before. I felt we had all the same information provided, especially with the pics and the rooms that housed those being evaluated more closely.
12 million people came through Ellis Island 1 in 4 Americans trace their history to an immigrant here. There were other places immigrants came, but NY was the busiest harbor.
In 1892 Annie Moore is first immigrant from Ireland to come through Ellis Island. Many changes happened since then. The original structure burned in 1897 and is replaced with stone and add a hospital- built the island away from the buildings and added a hospital in 1900 and another one, island 3 is built in 1909 for Contagious disease. Technically these spaces are in New Jersey!
355 babies were born here - a baby without a country until 1921 when the Supreme Court changed that to babies born in Ellis Island are citizens.
3500 people die in the hospital. Only
2% deported - 1% for medical medical and 1% legal
This was a teaching hospital where they performed autopsies and learned from the impacts of the patients that died here.
I was impressed with the work done here to help people. The tour guide suggested that they didn't do enough. I am not sure what other country would help people as much. I am not aware of other counties dedicating a hospital to care for people entering the country other than a jail. It's something I should study to be better informed.
Heather
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