The first thing you notice about New York 's Ellis Island hospital is its sheer scale . Twenty-two buildings are perched proudly on the island 's south side , their original vocations ranging from maternity ward , to psychiatric unit , to the contagious disease wing . The Ellis Island hospital complex , used between 1902 and 1930 , was where immigrants were checked before being allowed onshore . Here , within view of the Statue of Liberty , babies were born , people died , and a constant stream of patients with new illnesses arrived . It was the biggest public health initiative the U.S. had ever attempted and now , it is open to the public for the first time in 60 years . The hospital 's record is impressive . No epidemic on the U.S. mainland was ever attributed to an immigrant that came through its checking system . `` There were fears of epidemics '' the museum historian Barry Moreno told me . Cholera had broken out in New York in the 1890s , and `` there were fears of smallpox ... and typhus . But there was no epidemic that ever stemmed from here . '' The hospital , he added , `` played a very big role in screening immigrants . '' The second thing that hits you is the hospital complex 's authenticity . It looks like the dust has settled on a fire drill , from which no one returned . Single stools are left overturned . Buckets are left on top of closets , and bed frames lie rusty but intact in corners . The complex has survived extreme elements . Two years ago hurricane Sandy crippled the north side of the Island , closing the immigration museum there for a year . But the hospital stood firm , testament to a time when buildings were built `` very sturdily , '' Moreno says . One of the volunteer tour guides at the hospital , Tony Mrozinski , takes me into the morgue , where raked concrete benches tower over the area where autopsy tables once stood . `` People always ask me , '' he says , `` when the concrete was restored . I tell them : 'it was n't . ' '' The third thing you notice is what makes this place so addictive to the curious visitor . It 's the blend of adversity and opportunity . Patients were subject to suffering and humiliation , but they received top-class treatment and the opportunity of a new life . Ellis Island has been described as an island of hope , an island of tears -- and the two fit in the same breath . This is not only a halfway house between origin and destination , but between captivity and free will , sickness and health . As part of its opening , the hospital French artist JR has created an installation inside its brick maze . JR has taken original photographs of the patients and doctors that walked its corridors , enlarging them to life-size and pasting them on the crumbling walls , windows and doors . Janis Calella , president of the government-funded Save Ellis Island group , says the use of historic photographs and their placement through the hospital `` evoke some sort of an emotion , '' making it easier to support the work . Permanent exhibitions are not permitted by the National Parks Service , which runs Ellis Island , and the images can be peeled off if required . However , there are no plans to do so , Calella says . The exhibition `` will last here for as long as it lasts . '' she says .
New York 's Ellis Island hospital complex is now open to the public for tours . Immigrants were stopped at the hospital and checked for disease between 1902 and 1930 . The museum was built in 1936, but it has been closed since 1993 because of a lack of funding. The complex is a mix of hope and pain , the gateway to a new life and world .