FOR RELEASE: March 21, 2000
Contact: Linda Myers
Office: (607) 255-9735
E-Mail: [email protected]
Compuserve: Bill Steele, 72650,565
http://www.news.cornell.edu
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Last year they stripped away a half century's worth of weeds and overgrowth to reveal the sleeping beauty that was once the Commissioner's House on Ellis Island. This March 23-25, a new group of Cornell students will spend their spring break stabilizing the isolation ward, another neglected, historically important building on the island in the bay between lower Manhattan and Jersey City that once was the gateway to the United States for millions of immigrants.
This year's group of volunteers, students from Cornell's Historic Preservation Planning (HPP) program and the city and regional planning department in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning, will once again be joined by alumni and faculty of the college for the three-day intensive undertaking.
"With every passing year, more of the lesser-known structures on Ellis Island are falling into ruin," said Professor Michael Tomlan, director of the Cornell preservation program, "Without taking some immediate steps to stabilize what remains, the task of rehabilitating or restoring the property will become even more difficult - perhaps even impossible." Stabilization will ensure that the buildings will remain standing for another five to 10 years, until funding can be found for their restoration, he said.
Last year the student volunteers were among those who hoped to attract more attention to the need for a full-scale rehabilitation of the national monument. The efforts succeeded. Now about $8.6 million in New Jersey state funds, federal funds and private donations have been set aside to help stabilize the Ellis Island hospital complex and protect it from further deterioration. Only another $2.3 million is needed to fund the stabilization project fully.
Much more will be needed, however, to restore the buildings to their former glory and eventually turn them into visitors' sites. So far New Jersey has committed to supply $300 million toward the overall initiative, which might include transforming the complex into a learning center that focuses on the history of public health and immigrant contributions to U.S. society.
"Ellis Island played a key role in our medical history as well as our immigration history," said Nathan Jonjevic, a first-year preservation student and co-organizer of this year's stabilization project. "The doctors and nurses who established the isolation ward were among the first to understand the necessity of containing contagious diseases and sterilizing equipment and bedding to halt the spread of illness. The building represents those pioneering medical advances."
The project will include removing overgrown, moisture-holding vegetation, which threatens the building's structure and causes deterioration to its surface; sealing windows and doors to keep out the elements as well as birds and rodents; installing louvers and Plexiglas in the window and door panels to let in air and light and deter mold and mildew; and applying primer to protect the building's ornamental cornice trim and functional metal details.
Cornell students first came up with the plan when they visited the island in October 1998 and observed another building that had been stabilized by professionals over several weeks. They realized that they had the energy, skills and resources to take on a similar project - and that by allying with alumni supporters they could carry out a stabilization even more quickly and affordably.
In addition to Tomlan, Barbara Ebert, a Cornell HPP faculty member with extensive experience in building stabilization, will be leading the work detail this year. Heading the alumni volunteers is Sylvia Augustus Rose, an alumna who is president of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning's Preservation Planning Alumni Association. Alumni and community businesses are donating or discounting needed materials and equipment for the project.
For information and to gain access to Ellis Island, contact Nathan Jonjevic [email protected], (607) 227-1667, or Sylvia Augustus Rose, (212) 385-4008.
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