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Photo, Print, Drawing Ellis Island, Contagious Disease Hospital Isolation Ward I, New York Harbor, New York County, NY Statue of Liberty National Monument Ellis Island, Contagious Disease Hospital Ward 27-28 U.S. Immigration Station

View 17 images in sequence.
[ Photos from Survey HABS NY-6086-Y  ]

More Resources

View 8 images in sequence.
[ Drawings from Survey HABS NY-6086-Y  ]
[ Data Pages from Survey HABS NY-6086-Y  ]
[ Photo Captions from Survey HABS NY-6086-Y  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Ellis Island, Contagious Disease Hospital Isolation Ward I, New York Harbor, New York County, NY

Other Title

  • Statue of Liberty National Monument Ellis Island, Contagious Disease Hospital Ward 27-28 U.S. Immigration Station

Names

  • Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
  • U.S. Public Health and Marine Hospital Service
  • U.S. Public Health Service (PHS)
  • U.S. Bureau of Immigration
  • Taylor, James Knox
  • U.S. Coast Guard Port Security Unit
  • U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor
  • U.S. Department of Labor
  • U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)
  • U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)
  • U.S. Department of the Interior
  • North-Eastern Construction Company
  • Williams, William
  • Fry, Alfred Brooks
  • Stoner, George
  • Larned, Frank H.
  • Howell, Frank S.
  • Altberg, H. Z.
  • Morris Friedlander, Inc.
  • Orange Screen Company
  • Nepture B. Smyth, Inc.
  • Bernard Plumbing Company
  • Merit Construction Company
  • Blaustein, A.
  • Hershon, Harry
  • M. S. Melamed Company
  • Corsi, Edward
  • Perkins, Frances
  • Statue of Liberty National Monument, sponsor
  • Arzola, Robert R., project manager
  • Davidson, Paul, field team supervisor
  • De Sousa, Daniel, field team supervisor
  • Davidson, Lisa Pfueller, historian
  • Serrano, Diana G., field team
  • Williams, Jarinat, field team
  • Perez, Onairis N., field team
  • Sloan, Caleb, field team
  • Ortiz, Jarob J., photographer
  • Palfreyman, Samuel Ross, historian
  • McPartland, Mary, transmitter

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1933

Headings

  • -  hospital wards
  • -  pavilions
  • -  medicine
  • -  immigrants
  • -  Georgian Revival architectural elements
  • -  war (World War I)
  • -  New Deal
  • -  war (World War II)
  • -  hip roofs
  • -  brick foundations
  • -  brick buildings
  • -  dormers
  • -  skylights
  • -  New York--New York County

Latitude / Longitude

  • 40.696932,-74.042029

Notes

  • -  Significance: Isolation Ward I, later known as Wards 27 and 28, was one of three freestanding Isolation Ward pavilions built as part of the Contagious Disease Hospital complex on Island 3 of the Ellis Island U.S. Immigration Station in 1908. Distinct from the Contagious Disease Hospital's eight semi-detached Measles Ward pavilions, the three Isolation Ward pavilions were designed to provide hospital facilities for immigrants suffering from more serious contagious diseases and their combinations such as scarlet fever, diphtheria (a throat infection that could lead to paralysis), measles with scarlet fever, measles with diphtheria, measles with whooping cough, and scarlet fever with diphtheria. The two-story Measles Ward pavilions were attached to Island 3's two-story main corridor, but the Isolation Ward pavilions required a greater degree of separation. Therefore they were located on the far southeast end of Island 3 with each pavilion containing two open wards on the ground floor. In 1914, however, Isolation Wards I and K had their exterior walkways raised, covered, enclosed, and connected to the hospital’s main corridor to provide greater comfort and ease of circulation among the hospital's buildings during inclement weather. Opened on June 20, 1911, the Contagious Disease Hospital, including Isolation Ward I, greatly expanded the hospital facilities at Ellis Island run by the U.S. Public Health and Marine Hospital Service (after 1912, U.S. Public Health Service, or USPHS) in conjunction with the Bureau of Immigration. Prior to the opening of these facilities, immigrants with communicable diseases had to be transported to and treated at medical facilities throughout New York City, which was a health hazard to both the public and the infirm patients in transit. Designed by James Knox Taylor, the Supervising Architect of the Treasury, Isolation Ward I contained two independent first floor ward units. Each ward unit contained its own discharging rooms, bathrooms, linen closets, and a kitchen on the first floor, and bedrooms, a bathroom, and a sitting/dining room on the second floor for USPHS nurses. Isolation Ward I's exterior was executed in the same Georgian Revival mode as the rest of the Island 3 hospital: red tile roof, pebble dash stucco wall treatment, and red brick quoins and details. This decorative treatment complemented the Georgian Revival monumentality of the Island 2 Main Hospital while the detailing and lower scale made it visually distinct. During their forty-three years of occupation, the Isolation Wards proved to be flexible spaces responding to the various needs of patients and staff. Isolation Ward I remained relatively less altered than the other two isolation pavilions that had their open wards compartmentalized into smaller, more private rooms. However, it too had walls removed, tile added, and other modifications that affected its appearance and use over the years. The USPHS vacated the hospital facilities on March 1, 1951 and the U.S. Coast Guard Port Security Unit at Ellis Island expanded to use portions of the Island 3 hospital for file storage. The Ellis Island U.S. Immigration Station ceased operation on November 12, 1954 and the complex has remained unoccupied even after it was made part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965, under the administration of the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service.
  • -  Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N2253, N2254, N2255
  • -  Survey number: HABS NY-6086-Y
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1908-1909 Initial Construction
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1914 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: after. 1930- before. 1939 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: after. 1930- before. 1939 Subsequent Work
  • -  National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 66000058

Medium

  • Photo(s): 16
  • Color Transparencies: 1
  • Measured Drawing(s): 8
  • Data Page(s): 61
  • Photo Caption Page(s): 2

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HABS NY-6086-Y

Source Collection

  • Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • ny2438

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not license or charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot grant or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute the material.

Ultimately, it is the researcher's obligation to assess copyright or other use restrictions and obtain permission from third parties when necessary before publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the Library's collections.

For information about reproducing, publishing, and citing material from this collection, as well as access to the original items, see: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscape Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information

  • 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
  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HABS NY-6086-Y
  • Access Advisory: ---

Obtaining Copies

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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, U.S. Public Health And Marine Hospital Service, U.S. Public Health Service, U.S. Bureau Of Immigration, James Knox Taylor, U.S. Coast Guard Port Security Unit, U.S. Department Of Commerce And Labor, et al., Ortiz, Jarob J, photographer. Ellis Island, Contagious Disease Hospital Isolation Ward I, New York Harbor, New York County, NY. New Jersey New York New York County Jersey City Hudson County, 1933. translateds by Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/ny2438/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, C., U.S. Public Health And Marine Hospital Service, U.S. Public Health Service, U.S. Bureau Of Immigration, Taylor, J. K., U.S. Coast Guard Port Security Unit [...] Palfreyman, S. R., Ortiz, J. J., photographer. (1933) Ellis Island, Contagious Disease Hospital Isolation Ward I, New York Harbor, New York County, NY. New Jersey New York New York County Jersey City Hudson County, 1933. McPartland, M., trans Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/ny2438/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, et al., photographer by Ortiz, Jarob J. Ellis Island, Contagious Disease Hospital Isolation Ward I, New York Harbor, New York County, NY. trans by Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/ny2438/>.