Happy President’s Day! Today, we celebrate and honor United States presidents from past and present. Save Ellis Island would like to share a brief history of a few of our presidents who have influenced Ellis Island and have made historic visits to the island.
The hospital complex on Ellis Island was the first large-scale public health facility of its kind in America. It included quarantine, psychopathic and infectious disease wards. Considered to be one of the few remaining low rise pavilion-style public hospitals in our nation, Ellis Island’s 750-bed hospital complex was the beginning of the public health system in America as we know it today.
Martin Luther King Day is observed on January 15, 2018. On this day, we honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a man who brought hope and healing to America. King dreamt that all Americans would be judged by their personalities and not by the color of their skin. King was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929 and the holiday is celebrated on the Monday closest to that date.
At the height of immigration between 1902 and 1924, the public was permitted to visit Ellis Island as observers of the “immigrant experience.” The article below written by Ernest Hamlin Abbott, published in the Outlook MAGAZINE.
Ellis Island occupies a physical and emotional location no other historic site can match. Ellis Island provides multiple lenses on culture, race, memory and history, through which an American drama of passage, uncertainty and optimism can be better understood.
Ellis Island is hauntingly beautiful. The architecture is magnificent, the views are unparalleled, and the history is palpable. It is the center of global immigration in the harbor of one of the world’s iconic cities. It is a timeless place that personally touches all of us, because all of us have an immigration story.
From 1892 to 1954, over twelve million immigrants entered the United States through the portal of Ellis Island, a small island in New York Harbor. Ellis Island is located in the upper bay just off the New Jersey coast, within the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. Through the years, this gateway to the new world was enlarged from its original 3.3 acres to 27.5 acres mostly by landfill obtained from ship ballast and possibly excess earth from the construction of the New York City subway system.