old country house blog

ELLIS ISLAND

ELLIS ISLAND
I lived in New York City for 8 years and only ever saw Ellis Island from 
the Circle Line tour…a boat trip which goes around the entire Island of Manhattan.

we found relatives on my husbands side that came over from Italy...

…it is not possible, in simple blog post to convey the experience of visiting Ellis Island.
 Get the audio tour. There is so much to take in and see and understand and process
and put into some frame of reference
 that I wish that we had gotten the audio tour, 
to orient me to the journey through.
Ellis Island is set up, or I should say the tour is designed to allow visitors to 
go from one area to the next in much the same way a new immigrant might have. 
…still…audio tour or not…it is a wonderful and important place to visit.
What astounded me the most was this:  in the mid 1980’s, Ellis Island was a pile of rubble.
It was an abandoned shell of what had once been the gateway to America for millions of people.
That does not seem that long ago. And I really can’t help but wonder what made people finally restore it?
When we visited Savannah this summer, many of the beautiful historic homes had also been 
dumps up until about 20 years ago.
What changed? What inspired this massive gentrification of not only out cities, but also
our historic landmarks.
Whatever happened…I am glad that it did! 
Ellis Island is a must see for everyone.

1 thought on “ELLIS ISLAND

  1. My husband and I took his history club kids there on a field trip a few years ago. It IS an amazing part of our history. And though I’m married to a history nut, I could’ve cared less about it growing up so that’s saying something. Everyone should visit there.

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