New York - Day 6 - Friday

Battery Park and Ellis Island today. Last time my sister, niece and I were here we went to Liberty Island and walked around the statue so I didn't really feel any need to do that again. But I did decided to go over to Ellis Island.

The original wooden building burned to the ground in 1897 and the brick building that stands today was opened in 1900. This is the front entrance and the registry room. The have photos of the room when it was full of rails that looked like cattle chutes and (later on) rows and rows of benches where the people would sit waiting to be called. Ellis Island officially closed in 1954. Limited access to the island was allowed from '76 to'84 when preservation and reconstruction work began. It reopened as a museum in 1990.

This building is part of the hospital and contagious disease wards. I didn't get to go over there as I went late in the day any only had a short time to look around. This island was abandoned for many years and falling into decay. There are photo in the museum of those times. I would have liked to have been on the island taking photos then when it was quite and uncrowded - listening for the voices of the people that had passed through there. I would very much like to go back again and explore more.

I love to see things that once belonged to people long ago. This was a wedding dress from Italy from 1914. The other photo is a spinning wheel from Norway dated 1894. My friend, Jill is a spinner and I thought she's like to see this wheel. I would love to have a spinning wheel like that!

My ancestors on my mother's side of the family were originally from Scotland, then they went to Belfast and from there to the U.S. so they must have come through Ellis Island. I will have to look that up when I get home. The one name that I know didn't come up on the search kisok they have on the island and I was more interested in looking at the place than researching my family history on the computer.

This is certainly a place I will come back to next time I get to come to New York! If you are going, I suggest you buy your tickets the day before as the lines in the morning are REALLY long. Wait until late morning or early afternoon to go get your tickets for the next day.

Since I'm always walking around with a camera hung on my shoulder people will usually ask me to take their pictures for them. One such person in Battery Park yesterday was a man from Egypt. When he found out I was from California he said "oh, so you come here all the time". I thought that was funny. Distance is relative.

I have a friend who lives out here in NYC and I finally caught up with him today. He stayed at my sister's house for a few months many years ago when he was having "family issues". I vacationed at his place for a week when he moved up to the Bay Area, but we lost touch when he moved to New York.  He took me out to dinner and to a couple of his favorite haunts on the Lower East Side and we caught up on how our lives are going and just generally had a really nice time.