Ellis Island, Contagious Disease Hospital Measles Ward A, New York Harbor, New York, New York County, NY

Significance: Measles Ward A, later known as Wards 17 and 18, was one of eight identical measles pavilions constructed for the Contagious Disease Hospital complex on Island 3 of the Ellis Island U. S. Immigration Station. Its construction in 1907-08 greatly expanded the hospital facilities run by the U. S. Public Health and Marine Hospital Service (after 1912, U. S. Public Health Service, or USPHS) in conjunction with the Bureau of Immigration at Ellis Island. Concerns about the spread of contagious diseases such as measles, scarlet fever, and trachoma (an eye disease that could lead to blindness) prompted Ellis Island officials to lobby for an expanded hospital capability on the island itself, rather than transporting these cases to medical facilities throughout New York City. This effort represents both compassion in providing highly professional medical care for ill immigrants and fears regarding urban public health and the potential diseases carried by arriving aliens. In later decades the function of the USPHS hospitals at Ellis Island shifted to include caring for a complex mix of immigrants, detainees, merchant seaman, service members and other local citizens eligible for government medical care.

Measles Ward A and the Contagious Disease Hospital were designed by James Knox Taylor, the Supervising Architect of the Treasury. The Office of the Supervising Architect was responsible for the design of federal facilities, in this case working for the Department of Commerce and Labor in consultation with the USPHS surgeons assigned to Ellis Island. The Contagious Disease Hospital was a mature example of a pavilion plan hospital, a form favored since its establishment in Europe during the nineteenth century and in the United States largely since after the Civil War. Self-contained ward pavilions were arranged for maximum healthful ventilation and light and linked to administration, kitchen, and staff quarters by covered corridors. Each pavilion floor had a spacious open ward with large windows on three sides and independent ventilation ducts. A hall leading to the connecting corridor was flanked by bathrooms, nurses' duty room, offices, and a serving kitchen. Measles Ward A and the various Island 3 Contagious Disease Hospital buildings were unified by Georgian Revival exteriors, with red tile roofs, pebble and dash stucco wall treatment, and red brick quoins and details. This decorative mode complemented the Georgian Revival monumentality of the Island 2 general hospital while the detailing and lower scale of the new hospital made it visually distinct.

The USPHS vacated the hospital facilities on March 1, 1951 and the U.S. Coast Guard Port Security Unit at Ellis Island used portions of the Island 3 hospital for file storage. The Ellis Island U. S. Immigration Station ceased operation on November 12, 1954 and the complex was largely unoccupied until it was made part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965, under the administration of the U. S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Measles Ward A remains as one of the most intact examples of an original pavilion ward, with few alterations and many surviving original features.

Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N1677
Survey number: HABS NY-6086-T
Building/structure dates: 1907 Initial Construction
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 66000058