.jpg "Ellis Island ferry house, Ellis Island, New York. (from Library of Congress Photo Collection at Ancestry.com)")
I just read a New York Times article (requires free registration) about the Ferry Building on Ellis Island which was reopened to the public today following a $6.4 million facelift.
“It is the first step in a broad plan to reopen all of the buildings on Ellis Island, including a former 750-bed hospital complex that would be converted into an educational institute and conference center…Inside the Ferry Building, in the lunchroom where some immigrants had their last meals before coming New Yorkers, visitors will find an exhibit about the hospital complex, which at times held hundreds of patients with infectious and contagious diseases.”
According to the Encyclopedia of Ellis Island, by Barry Moreno (Librarian and Historian, Museum Services Division, Ellis Island Immigration Museum), the current building is one of three that existed on the site, and was built in 1936.
“The center section of the building contained a waiting room for passengers that included high-backed wooden benches at each corner; officials of the U.S. Customs Service occupied the left wing. The right wing contained a lunchroom, kitchen, and lavatories. A lead-sheathed cupola or tower of two tiers surmounts the building…Throughout the years, these ferry houses mainly served the riders of the ferryboat Ellis Island.”
April 17 will mark the 100th anniversary of “the peak of activity on Ellis Island, when it processed 11,747 immigrants in a single day.”
My parents, James and Catherine (McAree) Sherry came through Ellis Island in early 1931. They were Irish immigrants, who visited a short while with an aunt in New York City and then made their way to a farm in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This farm was on the Irish Line in Brimley, not far from Sault Ste. Marie.
They were escaping poverty in Ireland and worked hard on that farm until 1944, when tradegy took the lives of their 3 young sons, (John, James and Peter) ages, 12, 11 and 6. I was their only child that survived that accident.
I often wondered why I survived, but now I’ve been happily married for 53 years and have 10 living children and 10 grandchildren.
I just wanted to say hello .
GOOD BYE
and i wish all immigrants that had to go back home to keep on trying you can be one of us and have your frredom
thank you
MILLIMAMI!!!!!!!!