The South Side of Ellis Island

Skylight on the third floor of the new hospital addition.

Continuing on our sea-faring ventures out to the lost islands of New York with my compatriot the Kingston Lounge, today's coverage is of the off-limits sections of Ellis Island's south side. While the north side of the island has been converted into a museum with a great trove of historical documents portraying the hardships immigrants had when entering the port, the more gritty reality of history is found on the south side of the island- in the hospital, psychiatric buildings, quarantine wards and its power plant and autopsy theatre.

The south side contains 29 structures, most of which are connected via above-ground breezeways. Severely decayed, a volunteer cleanup project was held to help remove the overgrowth that was conquering the buildings, and many of them have been thoroughly abated, propped and mothballed to ensure no further decay while the Save Ellis Island project works on restoring and recovering the lost buildings. The island was handed over to the authority of the National Park Service in 1965, and the restoration project is being funded by two grants from Save America's Treasures, the amounts of which were matched by the State of New Jersey and smaller sums from private donors. According to a ruling in the Supreme Court in 1998, New York was granted ownership of 5 acres of Ellis Island (all located on the north side around the main building/Ellis Island Immigrant Museum) while the remaining 22 acres was granted to New Jersey.

View down the stairwell from the third floor of the new hospital addition.

Approaching the south side of the island by boat, one can see the great expanse of water between the island's southeastern quarantine and measles wards and the majestic view it allows of the Statue of Liberty. The main hospital complex is made up of three buildings- all located on a part of the island created off ballast and ship landfill in 1899, the long extension of the island was dubbed "Island Number 2" with the main hospital building being completed in 1902. Unable to handle the huge influx of immigrants to the island, 1908 saw the completion of the middle administration building and the hospital extension. 

The hospital wards at one point held over 700 beds. This is one of the 2nd floor day rooms in Measles Ward E.

The furthest vertical finger of the island to the west was known as "Island Number 3" and contained the long-term and most potentially contagious immigrants. The far end of Island Number 3 contained the laundry building, housed beside the power plant with a giant autoclave, an autopsy theatre with a startlingly tall cadaver refrigerator, and a two-story corridor which housed multiple measles wards, a nurses station, and at the far end, 3 isolation wards. It was in these hallways, as far away from the ferry intake center on the north side of the island that anyone who was potentially ill was housed, often living the rest of their lives inside the tiny walls. The best view of the Statue of Liberty comes on the second floor of the isolation wards.

View of the Statue of Liberty from the 2nd floor of Isolation Ward 29/30.

Between the isolation wards lie disused, overgrown courtyards with shattered windows that once flooded the halls with light. The walls themselves in the long breezeways are rough and utilitarian- most of the pain has been scraped off the walls in an attempt to stabilize and decontaminate the rooms. Many stairwells are missing steps, roofs leak and caution tape warns workers against using some of the more dangerous stairs. Tyvek suits hang in the hospital building, and a single suitcase remains. The operatory rooms, all located on upper floors to take advantage of skylights and natural light remain fairly pristine. 

One of the plexi sheets put over a window both diffuses light to prevent UV damage to the interior of the building and also weather seals it. Third floor, hospital administration building.

Operatory light on the third floor of the new hospital extension.

During the time Ellis Island was being used as the United States' principal immigration station, strident laws were in place to insure no one physically or mentally infirm was allowed into the country. The Public Health Service, known at the time as the Marine Hospital Service scrutinized and tested everyone coming through the island. Language barriers often caused individuals to be sent to the psychopathic buildings, and pregnant women were sent to the hospital complex. Anyone with the risk of TB or measles, among other communicable diseases were often isolated to far wards, sometimes where they would contract a disease even if they had been healthy coming onto the island.

Autopsy theatre and cadaver refrigerator, taken from the top of the seating area.

Steps leading out of the autopsy theatre, up a ramp toward the power plant and incinerator. The second floor above the theatre contained multiple small rooms with screen doors.

The immigration station shut down in 1954 before being transferred to the National Park Service nearly a decade later, by which point the island had already begun to reclaim the disused buildings.

Between 1892 and 1954, over 12 million immigrants landed on Ellis Island. A third floor hallway at the end of the original hospital building. 


The second floor of the small office and laboratory building which contained two floors and an unfinished attic. Located at the end of the long corridor separating Island 2 from Island 3, across the breezeway from the morgue and power plant.



Once a year, Open House New York allows access to the south side of the island in tours that quickly sell out, but only allows visitors to enter the southernmost building- the staff building. It has been swept and stabilized unlike any other building on the south side of the island. The door allowing access through the breezeways to the isolation wards and beyond is sealed.


Second floor bathroom in the staff building.

The two other buildings still pending stabilization are on the north side of the island, and are the Baggage Building and the Dormitory Building . The next exhibit will be held in the Ferry Building- the building that links the north and south sides, and will feature Save Ellis Island's first exhibit- "Future in the Balance: Immigrants, Public Health and the Ellis Island Hospitals." Once the rest of the corridor is restored, limited guided tours will be offered onto the south side of the island.

Green door and radiator, third floor of original hospital building.


Second floor stairwell in the main hospital building.


During its time as a port of refuge, Ellis Island turned away over 250,000 immigrants. Screen doors and contractor lights, second floor above laundry and linen rooms.


A walk-in autoclave for sterilizing instruments. Located beside the autopsy theatre.


Looking down from the attic of the laboratory building.


In half a century, 3,500 immigrants died on the island. Three committed suicide.

Buffalo State Hospital / H.H. Richardson Complex

Designed by H.H. Richardson, the Buffalo State Hospital was constructed in 1870 and stopped housing patients in the mid 1970's. One of the largest still-standing Kirkbride buildings, the state hospital became a great example of Richardson's style, which later in his career would become known as Richardsonian Romanesque. The hospital has been known by many names, including the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane, Buffalo State Lunatic Asylum and most recently as the Buffalo Psychiatric Center.



Heavily influenced by 12th century medieval architecture, it was clear Richardson spent years studying architecture in Paris. Many of the asylum's grandest features represent his love of cathedrals and towering masonry, from the stained glass, dual towers, interior ornate columns, Celtic fireplace ornament and high ceilings, among others.



Actual construction of the Buffalo State hospital would take many years, with the groundbreaking occuring in June, 1871. The complex, which would total eleven buildings. would not be finished until ten years after Richardson's death in 1886.

In 1876, pressured by a tightening budget, Richardson suggested that the outer wards on each side of the administration be constructed out of brick rather than stone. Creating the drawings for the brick wards between 1876-1877, the rest of the project was overseen by other architects. The admin, topped by its twin towers, and the male wards to its east were opened in 1880. The three brick wards on this side were demolished in the 1960's.



The unique exterior of the admin and wings is faced with rough Medina sandstone, a reddish stone quarried in Orleans County.



The entire Richardson complex is on both the National Register of Historic Places and the National Historic Landmark list.



This was probably the last chance I'll ever have to see the complex in its current state, and I am happy I went.

Late afternoon in a fire-damaged room.

Aqua seclusion room.

Two chairs against a blue wall.

View through a seclusion screen.

Wheelchairs on the dark, entirely boarded first floor.

Dawn light in a second-floor dayroom.


End of a ward.

A great place to watch the sun set.

Further reading:

The Kingston Lounge's recent photo set from BSH

Historical Information/Photos on the Richardson Complex
Info on the active Buffalo Psychiatric Center
Kirkbride Buildings- Buffalo State Hospital
Richardson Center Corporation

South Carolina State Hospital- Babcock Building

When not busy raging against the Atlantic Yards project or trying to preserve Admiral's Row through sadly fatalistic-sounding meetings, I've been off shooting more historic asylums across the US.



This is the Babcock building at South Carolina State Hospital, formerly known as the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum, as a few remaining documents in the building testify to. Created in the style of the Kirkbride buildings, while not actually being a Kirk itself, the Babcock building's admin is the second oldest building on the grounds, while its still active Mills building is not only on the National Historic Landmark, but has the honor of being "The oldest building in the country to be used continuously as a mental institution and one of the first mental hospitals built with public funds," according to the NHL.

The Babcock building, the largest on campus includes several smaller outbuildings, among them a disused dining hall which now stores old medical equipment and another outbuilding that leads to the tunnel system beneath the campus. The grounds astonished me, as rarely have I been so far south as South Carolina, especially during the summer, and vegetation not only crept into every crevice and over ever conceivable patch of bare ground, the summer storm that rolled through both when I was in one of the many solariums as well as at 3am during my overnight stay left an amazing impression with me.



Babcock was built in four different stages between 1857 and 1885 by architects George E. Walker and Samuel Sloan, however the actual construction Walker was able to see durin his lifetime only encompassed the three northern blocks of the south wing. These laid out the structure and style for the rest of the building, and between 1880 and 1882 Gustavus T. Berg built the southern wing to mirror the already-constructed northern one. Considered an exceptional example of Italian Renaissance Revival Design, the Babcock Building joined the Mills Building in the National Register on October 30, 1981.


Abandoned in mid 90's, the administration section of the building shows heavy renovation with drop ceilings and wall to wall carpeting, while the female wing is heavily vandalized by graffiti and looks like it had been used for a haunted house sometime in the last decade. The interior of the distinctive red dome has suffered at the hands of vandals and each window is either broken or covered in tagging. The building has unique roll-down metal doors that would help prevent the spread of fires in the wards, but many of these grates were either rusted in place or locked down, which made traversing the building like attempting to weave through a labyrinth.


What little remains of a pharmacy room in the male wing, including an empty bottle of Stelazine.


A fireplace grill in admin.


Ground floor stairwell in admin.


Stained glass, third floor attic of admin.


An old piano, male wards.


Top floor, female wards. One of the few non-vandalized rooms.


Patient bed, admin.


Bathtub in a particularly difficult to reach area, male wing.


Cabinet, dining area, admin.


First floor stairwell, female ward.

Middletown State Hospital

Revisiting a trip that took place in late fall one year, where the last warm rays of sun struggle against the oncoming cold light that winter produces. I love both types of light for photography- they both produce such dynamically different results.

These New York winters are fairly dismal and cold though, and it's always refreshing to get some warming light flooding the halls of these old psychiatric buildings. It becomes easier to remember the human element, to recall the hundreds of lives affected by these institutions, both the good and the bad.



Far too often I'm repulsed by seeing these beautiful historic places turned into cliche subjects of B-movies. Flaunted as haunted, wards for psycho-killers (Qu'est-ce que c'est?), the images become those of electroshock machines, botched lobotomies, straightjackets and padded walls. I understand the macabre fascination here- most institution conditions were horrible. I just don't see how making movies like "Death Tunnel" and "Madhouse" do even the sheerly exploitative fascination with insane asylums any justice.

I have my own aesthetic loves in hospitals. I love lonely chairs, rotary phones, and solariums. And keys.

I  couldn't begin to shake a stick at the number of wheelchairs I've seen in the past few years, but seeing a neglected storage room full of them still inspires great emotion. From the tiny chairs for children, to the potty chairs for the incontinent, to every conceivable style of reclining, stationary, restraint-laden, angled, metal, wood, PVC and everything between- to know each of these was used by a disabled person to grant them mobility, often in an enclosed, closely supervised environment is still a testament to their human qualities.

But I digress- back to my late autumn hospital. Middletown State Hospital is located in New York state, several hours' drive north of the City, I found it to exude warmth. A  reasonably small psychiatric building as compared to some I've seen, the luminosity of its walls, the lack of vandalism, the sprawling day rooms all brought a sense of community to the building.


Late afternoon light through an empty room.


A wooden seclusion room door with an inset 1" thick piece of circular glass. The shadows are cast from the barred window within the room.


A green day room.


Warm corridor looking down on multiple seclusion rooms.


Multi-colored connector hallway. Long exposure shot using the last 10 minutes of light streaming through the hospital.


Dark hallway as the sun has nearly set.


Collapsed floor- a lot of the building is suffering from severe structural decay and multiple floors have collapsed, some on top of one another.


Old hairdryer, moved into the collapsed cafeteria on the bottom floor of the building at some point when the building was being vacated.

Small a building as it was, Middletown is among my favorite state hospitals.