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Photo, Print, Drawing Ellis Island, Recreation Shelter, New York Harbor, New York County, NY Statue of Liberty National Monument U.S. Immigration Station

[ Photos from Survey HABS NY-6086-W  ]

More Resources

[ Drawings from Survey HABS NY-6086-W  ]
[ Data Pages from Survey HABS NY-6086-W  ]
[ Photo Captions from Survey HABS NY-6086-W  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Ellis Island, Recreation Shelter, New York Harbor, New York County, NY

Other Title

  • Statue of Liberty National Monument U.S. Immigration Station

Names

  • Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
  • Aldrich, Chester, architect
  • U.S. Public Building Service
  • Albert Development Corporation
  • Ellis Island Committee
  • Arzola, Robert, project manager
  • Davidson, Lisa Pfueller, historian

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1933

Headings

  • -  New Deal
  • -  recreation
  • -  reinforced concrete construction
  • -  brick veneer
  • -  New York -- New York County

Latitude / Longitude

  • 40.698446,-74.04237

Notes

  • -  Significance: The Recreation Shelter on Islands 2 and 3 was part of the last active phase of construction at the Ellis Island U.S. Immigration Station during the 1930s. The Recreation Building and two Recreation Shelters were designed for Ellis Island alongside the New Immigration Building (1934-1936) and Ferry Building (1934), all of which were financed through New Deal funding. The construction of these new facilities contributed to a reconfiguration of the island into clearly demarcated spaces for patients, immigrants and deportees, a shift that recognized the changing dynamics of immigration in the United States during the years of the Great Depression. This concern for the physical and mental well-being of the island's temporary inhabitants was tied to larger national and international concerns about public health and social services. In 1933 the federally-appointed Ellis Island Committee completed a report that recommended widespread improvements to the Immigration facilities, among which was the development of adequate accommodations for recreation. Plans were initiated to make the new space created by filling in the lagoon between Islands 2 and 3 into an open-air recreation area, and to build a Recreation Building and Recreation Shelter at its west end. The Recreation Building and Recreation Shelters (a nearly identical structure on Island 1 was used by deportees) were constructed simultaneously in large part because of a new recognition of the need to accommodate patient, inmate, and immigrant leisure on the three-island complex. During World War II, the building was used by the United States Coast Guard, which also made use of the facilities from 1951 to 1954, after the United States Public Health Service vacated on March 1, 1951. The Ellis Island United States Immigration Station ceased operation on November 12, 1954 and the complex was largely unoccupied until it was made part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965, under the administration of the United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service.
  • -  Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N1680
  • -  Survey number: HABS NY-6086-W
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1936-1937 Initial Construction
  • -  National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 66000058

Medium

  • Photo(s): 3
  • Measured Drawing(s): 2
  • Data Page(s): 33
  • Photo Caption Page(s): 1

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HABS NY-6086-W

Source Collection

  • Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • ny2380

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

Rights & Access

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  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
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  • Call Number: HABS NY-6086-W
  • Access Advisory: ---

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, Chester Aldrich, U.S. Public Building Service, Albert Development Corporation, Ellis Island Committee, Robert Arzola, and Lisa Pfueller Davidson. Ellis Island, Recreation Shelter, New York Harbor, New York County, NY. New York County New York, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/ny2380/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, C., Aldrich, C., U.S. Public Building Service, Albert Development Corporation, Ellis Island Committee, Arzola, R. & Davidson, L. P. (1933) Ellis Island, Recreation Shelter, New York Harbor, New York County, NY. New York County New York, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/ny2380/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, et al. Ellis Island, Recreation Shelter, New York Harbor, New York County, NY. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/ny2380/>.