by Russell Boniface
Associate Editor

Summary: The historic Ellis Island Ferry Building in New York Harbor, restored by project architect Einhorn Yaffee Prescott, celebrated a grand reopening April 2. The event marked a new beginning for the red-brick, Art Deco terminal that served as the departure point for 8 million immigrants from 1936 to 1954. About two-thirds of all Ellis Island immigrants took its wood and steel ferry to either lower Manhattan or New Jersey. The $6.4 restoration, a project of Save Ellis Island Inc. and the National Park Service, was financed by federal, New Jersey, and private funds. Exterior and interior refurbishment includes new exhibits about the building, the island's history, and its hospital buildings.

Ellis Island opened in 1892. Immigrants who passed legal and health inspections went to the Ferry Building at the inlet slip to depart. Originally, the building was a dilapidated wooden structure. In 1936, it was replaced with the existing, 5,500 square-foot Art Deco terminal.

Exterior and interior restoration
After decades of decay, the wide, red-brick Ferry Building, with its steel-framed glass windows and rising center, has been restored. Atop the structure sits a reglazed lead-coated, copper and glass cupola adorned with chevrons and four bronze eagles, capped by a red-glass beacon. Down its façade, the terra cotta space for the never-installed clock still shows.

Interior restoration is almost complete, and exterior restoration, which was completed in 2002, included:

• Repairing and replacing bricks and adding new mortar
• Fixing the eagles' broken wingtips on the cupola
• Redoing the steel-frame windows.

Interior restoration included:

• Refurbishing a 180-pound bronze chandelier in the waiting area
• Refinishing the top layer of the terrazzo floor
• Replastering and painting walls in the original colors (yellow, steel-gray, and beige) using low-VOC paint
• Restoring five original steel doors and installing 17 replicas
• Regrouting terra cotta wainscoting wall tiles, replaced with tiles hidden behind wall benches; tiles were then painted orange
• Restoring two high-backed, white oak benches and adding two replicas.

Ferry Building aglow; mutual support
“It has been a long time coming and has taken a lot of work, dedication, and money,” says Elizabeth Jeffery, director of program development and administration, Save Ellis Island Inc., a nonprofit partner of the National Park Service. “Sometimes it is the less ornate buildings that can shine, and the Ferry Building is really shining wonderfully. The huge chandelier glows on the water in the evenings. Real care was taken in every detail of the project.”

Jeffery says it’s encouraging when preservationists and architects support each other to overcome the challenges involved in this type of restoration. “This project, for example, was bid three times; it was difficult chasing construction costs; we needed an environmental statement; and we had to go through a long, cumbersome federal process, being that the building is federally owned. And the building is on an island. Sometimes these projects are quite a challenge to pull off, but I think we all should celebrate when it does happen.”

Exhibits tell the story
“One of the exhibits being installed in the Ferry Building is about the ferry building itself,” Jeffery explains. “It will be an interpretation of the structure, which is historic in itself in that it was the departure point for all immigrants. There will also be an exhibit about the hospital, detailing how immigrants were treated, the operation of the hospital, and the entire experience.”

Jeffery says the Ferry Building represents a significant element of Ellis Island. “The Ferry Building was the happy place for immigrants, where they finally, after the journey of fleeing from strife, hunger, and war, could begin. Family waited there, celebrating.”