In 2012, my wife and I spent our 20th wedding anniversary in New York. It was our first visit, and we walked miles around Manhattan, taking in all the typical tourist attractions. When we travel, we make the most of our time—morning until late at night—determined not to miss anything. Among the many places we planned to visit were Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, but I was especially intrigued by the abandoned Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, a place I knew little about at the time.
We toured the Ellis Island Museum and walked around Liberty Island, but something struck me as odd. Why had the hospital on the south side of Ellis Island been left abandoned? Surely, it held just as much historical significance as the U.S. Immigration Station, right?
After returning home, I did some research and discovered that several organizations offered guided hardhat tours of the hospital for small groups. That instantly put a return trip to New York on our bucket list.
In August 2018, we finally made that trip back—this time with our two teenage sons. With everything we had planned for the week, I wasn’t sure how they would react to a hardhat tour of an old hospital. I expected at least a few groans or an exasperated “Are we done yet?” But I was completely wrong.
A week later, as we sat around the dinner table reflecting on the trip, my sons both agreed—the hardhat tour had been a highlight.
Photographing the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital
There is a universal truth about photographers—we are drawn to old, abandoned, and forgotten places. It doesn’t matter where they are; we find them, and we photograph them. Is it because we see beauty in things others have discarded? Or is it the desire to document and preserve history through images? I don’t know if I have an answer.
In the months leading up to our trip, I studied hundreds of photos of the abandoned hospital. With so many already captured, why take the same images? But I knew I had to make my own. I wanted to create my own versions of the scenes I had envisioned, to add them to my catalog, and to share them with others.
Inside the Abandoned Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital
On the south side of the island sits the abandoned Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, which operated from 1902 to 1930. At its peak, the hospital complex had 29 interconnected buildings, forming a vast medical campus. By 1914, it was fully operational, treating over 10,000 patients from 75 countries. With 750 beds, it became the first public health hospital in the United States and one of the largest medical facilities in the country.
When immigrants arrived at the Immigration Station, third-class and steerage passengers underwent visual inspections. Doctors selected about 1 in 5 immigrants for further evaluation and marked half with chalk to indicate possible medical issues. Doctors screened for contagious diseases such as trachoma, tuberculosis, and diphtheria, while immigration inspectors had the final say on who could enter the United States.
Despite strict screenings, officials deported only 1% of immigrants for medical reasons. Steamship companies typically covered the first few weeks of hospital care. However, 13% of immigrants were denied treatment, often because they couldn’t afford medical expenses. Those with Class A conditions—including mental illnesses such as epilepsy or insanity—were especially vulnerable to exclusion.
Exploring the Hospital: A Hardhat Tour
We booked our hardhat tour through Untapped Cities, but tours can also be arranged directly through the National Park Service at a lower price. The ticket included ferry transportation with Statue Cruises and access to both Ellis and Liberty Islands.
One of the best parts of the tour? 100% of the ticket price goes to Save Ellis Island, a non-profit working to preserve the hospital and other historic structures on the island’s south end.
But why are hardhats required?
When the hospital closed in 1930, officials left it unlocked, exposing its furniture and medical equipment to the elements. Decades of neglect took a toll—walls crumbled, wooden beams rotted, and black mold spread through parts of the General Hospital. Some areas are still too unsafe to tour. In the doctor’s quarters, a large room with a beautiful fireplace, a crack had appeared in the ceiling just weeks before our visit.
Our tour guide, a volunteer in his early 20s, led us through the hospital and answered what felt like hundreds of questions. He was also what I would call photographer-friendly. He quickly noticed that another woman and I lagged behind the group, composing shots. When I apologized for falling behind, he simply shrugged and said, “I don’t care, as long as I know where you are.” That small gesture made the tour even more enjoyable—both as a photographer and as someone fascinated by history.
Reading about the hospital online or visiting the Ellis Island Museum is interesting, but nothing compares to hearing stories directly from an experienced guide. Two facts from the tour especially stood out:
- Autopsies Were Mandatory. Every immigrant who died at the hospital had to undergo an autopsy. Between 1909 and 1911, the hospital quarantined 420 immigrants, 85% of whom were children under 13. That means an average of three autopsies per week, with two of them being children. It’s hard to imagine how busy the autopsy theater must have been during the Spanish Flu outbreak in 1918.
- Public Backlash Over Autopsies. At one point, local New York immigrants protested the hospital’s autopsy practices, believing the government was performing unnecessary procedures on their deceased loved ones. Officials defended the autopsies as necessary for disease research and medical training, but for grieving families, the explanations did little to ease their pain.
Is the Hospital Haunted?
Curious about the hospital’s haunted reputation, I asked my family what they thought. There was no consensus. We saw nothing unusual and felt no fear. But some areas felt heavy with history—knowing what had happened there made an impact.
For example, my 15-year-old son, Connor, found the psychiatric ward especially unsettling. Patients at that end of the hospital could go outside into a confined, caged area. Connor looked around and remarked, “This building is huge. They must have had a lot of patients with mental diseases.”
A few weeks later, I received an email from Save Ellis Island promoting their Halloween Hardhat Tour, titled: Ghosts of the Abandoned Ellis Island Hospital. The email included four eerie images, which immediately caught my attention. I contacted Janis Calella, President of the Save Ellis Island Foundation, to ask about them.
While she didn’t grant me permission to share the photos, she told me:
“The images are interesting, and if you saw the rest (not included in the article), I’m sure you’d be convinced that something unexplainable is happening at the hospitals.”
Final Thoughts: Should the Hospital Be Preserved?
When the Ellis Island Immigration Station was renovated, two schools of thought clashed:
- Preserve its imperfections, allowing the building to tell its own story.
- Fully restore it, turning it into a pristine museum for visitors.
I believe the Immigration Station strikes a good balance between the two. But what about the hospital complex? It holds just as much historical significance, yet it is slowly crumbling.
Whether abandoned or restored, the Ellis Island Hospital deserves recognition. It provided care for immigrants in need, protected public health, and saved lives. Babies were born there. Thousands died there.
The hospital represented American healthcare at its best and worst—sending 90% of patients on to New York City to start new lives, while denying others medical care due to lack of funds.
For 12 million immigrants, Ellis Island symbolized hope and opportunity. For 3,500, it became a place of loss and sorrow.
Would you visit the Ellis Island Hospital? Do you think it should be preserved? Let me know in the comments!
Shaun Nelson is a photographer from South Ogden, Utah. See his portrait work at ShaunNelsonPhotography.com and read his thoughts on vintage cameras at UtahFilmPhotography.com. Follow Shaun on Instagram @shaunnelson.