Ellis Island cleanup by Cornell students, alumni

CU students and alumni work wonders on Ellis Island

See photos at end of story.

By Linda Myers

Fearful that time was running out for Ellis Island's abandoned, deteriorating historic hospital buildings, 87 Cornell historic preservation and planning graduate students and alumni volunteers spent March 25-28 stabilizing one of the most visible structures -- the Commissioner's House -- which was home to key medical staff when it was built in 1909. The buildings will need to be demolished if they aren't stabilized within the next five years. Stabilization will protect them from further deterioration and allow for their eventual rehabilitation.

Some surprise landscape finds during the project: walkways surrounding the house, a bed of historic crocuses that had been blooming under vines for 45 years and a birdbath from the 1920s.

The project was done in collaboration with the National Park Service, whose Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Monument group oversees the island. Alumni, local businesses and national chains donated materials for the job, which was carried out over four days.

Professor Michael Tomlan, director of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning's preservation program, described the building as an "architectural gem."

"We wanted to demonstrate that grass-roots efforts can rescue the buildings on Ellis Island," said Kathleen Foley, one of the student organizers. The project was modeled on a demonstration stabilization on another Ellis Island building by the New York Landmarks Conservancy in 1997. Conservancy representative Roger Lang toured the Cornell project and was overwhelmed by what the volunteers had accomplished. "This is exactly what I wanted," he said.

Mark Rodman, another student organizer, noted that after the project was completed, nearly all the volunteers took a meditative moment by themselves inside the building, absorbing what they had accomplished. "Our hope," he said, "is that the project will serve as a model for other groups to come forward to save the island."