A century ago, the hospital complex at the historic Ellis Island immigration inspection station was where approximately one out of every 10 arrivals who were too sick to be allowed into the country were sent to recover, or to die.

The 29-building medical complex – in its day the largest public health institution in the U.S. – was itself left to die when the immigration station closed in 1954. Ellis Island’s Main Building was restored and reopened as an immigration museum in 1990. But the hospital complex on the island’s south side remained shuttered for 60 years until two months ago, when officials opened the dilapidated buildings for public viewing.

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