Nonprofit Seeks Ellis Island Renewal

The modern, gleaming museum in the Main Hall of Ellis Island, in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, lures millions of visitors each year, while the crumbling remains of 29 abandoned buildings on the island’s south side are closed to the public. Those buildings once housed a psychiatric hospital, a contagious-disease ward, and a morgue. A nonprofit fund-raising organization, Save Ellis Island, is campaigning to open the buildings to the public to shed light on the immigrant experience of those who were never allowed to leave.