Ellis Island | |
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Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital
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Location |
Ellis Island Jersey City, New Jersey |
Coordinates | 40°41′58.4″N 74°2′22.5″W / 40.699556°N 74.039583°WCoordinates: 40°41′58.4″N 74°2′22.5″W / 40.699556°N 74.039583°W |
Elevation | 7 ft (2.1 m) |
Built | 1902 |
Architectural style(s) | Georgian Revival |
Governing body | National Park Service |
Website | http://www.nps.gov/elis/ |
Official name: Statue of Liberty National Monument, Ellis Island and Liberty Island | |
Designated | October 15, 1966 |
Reference no. | 66000058 |
Official name: Statue of Liberty National Monument | |
Designated | added October 15, 1965 |
Location in Port of New York and New Jersey
Location in Port of New York and New Jersey
Location in Port of New York and New Jersey
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The Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, also known as USPHS Hospital #43, was the United States’ first public health hospital, opened in 1902 and operating as a hospital until 1930. Constructed in phases, the facility encompassed both a general hospital and a separate pavilion style contagious disease hospital. The hospital served as a detention facility for new immigrants who were deemed unfit to enter the United States after their arrival; immigrants would either be released from the hospital to go on to a new life in America or sent back to their home countries. The hospital was one of the largest public health hospitals in United States history and is still viewed today as an extraordinary endeavor in the public health field. While the monument is managed by the National Park Service as part of the National Parks of New York Harbor office, the south side of Ellis Island has been off-limits to the general public since its closing. Efforts to restore the hospital buildings and others on the island are being made by government partner Save Ellis Island. In October 2014, the hospital opened to the public for small group hard hat tours.
The original immigration station on Ellis Island opened January 1, 1892 and processed 700 people that first day. In September of that year, a Hamburg-America steamer S.S. Moravia arrived at with several confirmed cases of cholera. Every ship arriving in the port of New York was held at quarantine before being cleared to land. Passengers found to have dangerous contagious diseases were taken off ships at quarantine and transferred to the hospital at either Hoffman or Swinburne Island. Twenty-four of Moravia's passengers were ill and twenty-two deaths had occurred during the voyage. Many were children. It was believed that the outbreak occurred due to the ship taking on contaminated water from the Elbe river. The threat of a pandemic caused all shipping traffic to be suspended. The backlog of ships held at quarantine and the lack of adequate medical facilities to handle the volume quickly precipitated the need for a more robust healthcare facility to treat immigrants and merchant marine sailors.
On June 15, 1897, the wooden immigration station on Ellis Island was destroyed by fire. Plans were immediately made to build a new, fireproof immigration station on Ellis Island. The Supervising Architect of the Treasury, James Knox Taylor had just been recently appointed, and was charged with undertaking the design of the new Immigration Station and all of the ancillary buildings. Utilizing the provisions of the Tarsney Act, Taylor decided to solicit designs from private architects via design competition. The winning entry was awarded to the architects William Alciphron Boring and Edward Lippincott Tilton, and included the Main Building, Power House #1, a Kitchen & Laundry building, General Hospital, and Surgeon's House. The island itself was to be increased in size utilizing landfill, with the hospital being located across a new ferry basin from the Main Building on its own island. This was in response to the prevailing germ theory that germs could not travel across a body of water.