The Abandoned Ellis Island South Side Hospitals [Photos]

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The well-known autopsy amphitheater, with an 8-cadaver refrigerator (in the slideshow below). Photo by Clara Ward.

The abandoned Ellis Island South Side Hospitals were one of our favorite locations we covered last year, as part of our role as Blog Ambassadors for the American Express/National Trust for Historic Preservation Partners in Preservation campaign. At its prime, it was a cutting-edge facility due to its highly skilled staff and the design of the building, which enabled the curing and isolation of infectious diseases, brought over by some of the the 10 to 12 million immigrants who passed through Ellis Island. Not everything was a success, such as the discredited eugenics practices, as explored in a 2007 documentary covered by The New York Times. With tighter immigration policies in the 1920s, the hospital steadily declined and was fully abandoned in 1954.

The organization Save Ellis Island has been battling to save these lesser-known buildings of Ellis Island, with some setbacks from Superstorm Sandy. Clara Daily has taken these remarkable photos of the South Side Hospitals and shared them with Untapped Cities. Read more at Save Ellis Island.