South Side Wayside

Southside during a Snowstorm

Across the ferry slip on Ellis Island's south side, you'll find an amazing group of wards, residences, labs, laundries and kitchens which once made up the largest U. S. Public Health Service hospital in the country. Here doctors inspected and treated 1.2 million immigrants who arrived with illnesses or infirmities. In these buildings, immigrants learned if America's door would swing open to them or close because of a "loathsome or contagious" disease. Here, they also received the latest in medical care and treatment.

New buildings

Between 1892 and 1954, approximately 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island. At first most of the immigration station's functions took place in the Main Immigration Building (now home to the Ellis Island Immigration Museum), which opened on December 17, 1900 after the original wooden building burned down. However, in order to accommodate the overwhelming number of immigrants who annually passed through the island, the United States government added landfill to increase the island's footprint and constructed additional buildings to handle registration, medical care, and housing.

Main Hospital Buildings

In March of 1902, the Main Hospital Building opened. The hospital had the space and equipment to care for 125 patients. Over the next seven years, additional buildings were added to the hospital complex, including a Contagious Disease Hospital and Isolation Wards for patients suffering from contagious diseases like scarlet fever, diphtheria, measles and whooping cough. This additional space allowed physicians of the U.S. Public Health and Marine Hospital Services to properly diagnose and treat immigrants who failed the cursory medical inspection mandated by federal immigration laws.

Ellis Island Hard Hat Tour

Guided 90-minute tours will take you to select areas of the 750-bed Ellis Island Hospital. Visit the Laundry Building, with much of its original equipment still in place, where over 3000 pieces of laundry were washed and sanitized daily. The tour will also take you to the infectious and contagious disease wards, kitchen, staff housing, autopsy room and more. Thinking about joining a tour? If you are wearing close toed shoes, stop at the Save Ellis Island Information Desk (Ellis Ground Floor Baggage Room) to check on availability. Learn more about Save Ellis Island and their ongoing efforts to preserve the South Side of Ellis Island on their website www.saveellisisland.org