The New Ferry Building - Ellis Island

Restoration of the New Ferry Building on Ellis Island is being supported in part by a Federal Save America’s Treasures award administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. New Ferry Building In 1999, the Statue of Liberty National Monument/Ellis Island was awarded a $1.2 million federal challenge grant from the Save America’s Treasures program to restore the New Ferry Building. New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman’s advisory committee on Ellis Island helped secure the $1.2 million non-federal match for this grant in 2000. The New Ferry Building was built by the Works Progress Administration in 1936 to replace an earlier ferry house in the same location. This new fireproof ferry house was made of brick and featured a high central pavilion surmounted by a copper-covered cupola and two single-story wings. The central pavilion housed a waiting room for immigrants, the left wing was designated for use by the United States Customs Service, and the right wing had a lunchroom with kitchen facilities. The Ferry Building and its connecting corridors are the key connection between the immigrant processing facility in Main Building and the United States Public Health Service hospital complex on the other side of the island. Abandoned for over 45 years, the building is in an advanced state of decay. Funds will stabilize the building and restore its exterior. For information on this and other stabilization projects underway on Ellis Island, please go to the Park’s website at www.nps.gov/elis. Save America’s Treasures Initiated in 1998, the Save America’s Treasures program helps communities around the United States maintain and restore their historic sites and objects. Save America’s Treasures is a public-private partnership of the White House Millennium Council, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the National Park Service. Ellis Island is one of the more than 550 national and local historic sites, collections, objects, and documents that have been designated as official projects of the Save America’s Treasures program.