FOLLOW-UP
Work on the Great Hall, or Registry Room, in the main building of Ellis Island includes cleaning of the thousands of Gustavino ceiling tiles, repairing the special plaster on the balcony walls
and original tile floors, restoring the heating and lighting systems. Created and protected on the floor of the Great Hall (center) are the original chandeliers which already have been restored.
Family Wall
When the Ellis Island Museum opens in 1989,
one of its most personally gratifying displays
will be The American Immigrant Wall of Honor.
Approximately one-half mile from the Statue
of Liberty, the welcoming beacon for
immigrants in New York Harbor, stands Ellis
Island, America's major federal immigration
station. Photo was taken in 1982 prior to the
start of America's largest restoration project
which is being carried out by The Statue of
Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.
The final phase of fund-
raising and specific exhibit
themes, including a new
American Immigrant Wall of
Honor on which forebears'
names can be inscribed, has
been announced for Ellis Is-
land Museum. Restoration of
Ellis Island and the 200,000-
square foot historic Main
Building is scheduled to be
completed by 1989, when the
Museum will be open to the
public.
Located a few hundred
yards north of Liberty Island
in New York Harbor, Ellis
Island was the major federal
immigration facility in
America. It processed 17
million men, women, and chil-
dren who came to the United
States from 1892 to 1954,
when the facility closed. lb-
day, more than 40 percent, or
over 100 million, of all living
Americans can trace their
roots to an ancestor who
came through Ellis Island.
In 1965, Ellis Island was
designated part of the Statue
of Liberty National Monu-
ment, which is administered
by the National Park Service
(NPS) of the Department of
the Interior.
In 1982, President Ronald
Reagan asked Lee Iacocca to
set up an organization, The
Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island
Foundation, that would raise
funds and oversee construc-
tion for the restoration and
preservation of the Statue of
Liberty and Ellis Island and
plan for the centennial cele-
brations of each.
The restoration of Ellis
Island, which began in 1984,
will cost $140 million and is
the largest restoration project
of its kind in American his-
tory. Its scope is comparable
to the restorations done on
the Palace of Versailles and
Leningrad's Hermitage.
The Ellis Island Museum
will be the major institution
dedicated to the promotion,
advancement, and under-
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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