Ellis Island Hospital Hard Hat Tour

Ellis Island Hospital Hard Hat Tour

Tour Highlights

  • Exclusive hard hat tour inside the abandoned Ellis Island Hospital, in partnership with Save Ellis Island
  • Access buildings usually off-limits to the public
  • Discover the history of this hospital, once the standard for the U.S. medical care and abandoned since 1954
  • See what life was like in the hospital as you explore the laundry building, contagious disease wards, autopsy rooms, staff house and more
  • Your tickets include: Round trip ferry tickets to and from Ellis Island, access to the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration, exclusive hard hat tour inside the abandoned hospital. 
  • Please Note: You will need to be at the ferry terminal (Castle Clinton, Manhattan or Liberty State Park, NJ) at least 2 hours prior to the start of the tour to go through airport style  security and board the ferry to Ellis Island.

Make this tour private, for your group only. Starts at $900

Guests Love This Tour!

  • 5 star ratingEllis Island Hard Hat Tour - amazing experience! I went on the Ellis Island Hard Hat Tour and it was amazing!! I would recommend it to everybody who is interested in history.
    AnneBoletteKK
    7/17/2022
    5 star ratingUnforgettable Ellis Island Experience Ellis Island Hospital Hard Hat Tour was an amazing walk back through time. While the main building is a beautiful recreation with excellent exhibits, the hospital is in various states of decay that give you a better idea of what the facilities looked like at the early part of the century. There are long hallways leading to various buildings that served as both short term and long term medical facilities for immigrants with contagious diseases, mental conditions, tuberculosis and various other medical problems that detained both adults and children. We learned so much about the history of the buildings and the people who both worked there as well as were detained there. Our guide was excellent and represents Save Ellis Island Foundation, a non profit working to restore these buildings. This tour made me realize what a difficult journey many of our ancestors experienced. Not for very young children
    PenelopeA107
    3/28/2022
  • 5 star ratingexcellent access to abandoned facility with history. We did the hard hat tour of the abandoned hospital on Ellis Island. Our guide Tory was amazing. We learned so much. This should be a must see for everyone who had immigrant ancestors. It is amazing all that was done for our ancestors..
    LindaChana22
    6/20/2021
    5 star ratingHard Hat Tour of Ellis Island - HIGHLY RECOMMEND I have always wanted to do a Hard Hat Tour of Ellis Island and I finally got to do it. Excited about the event, I have picked a wrong ferry - from NJ instead of NY.
    Untapped Cities' customer service representative Augustin was very helpful and changed my ferry reservations quickly after I reached out to the company! Awesome!
    The tour itself is great and very informative! If you are into history, and history of immigration in particular you would LOVE the tour. Going through these wards and corridors you realize what these immigrants who came to the USA by boat and happened to get sick (and how would not be you after being huddled on the boat for 2 weeks or more?) had to go through. Wonderful work, educators and organizers!
    Wanderlust455
    5/26/2021
  • 5 star ratingTop notch tour of Ellis Island hospital My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed the hard hat tour of the abandoned hospital on Ellis Island. The ferry ride to the island was a total delight. The tour guide was knowledgeable and the tour was fascinating. When we were there, there were many photos of immigrants that had been superimposed on the walls by the artist JR - very eerie but totally cool. Try to leave enough time to see the museum. We didn't but we'll definitely come back.
    aaly-oop
    5/23/2021
    5 star ratingHard-Hat Tour of Ellis Island I took the hard-hat tour of the abandoned Ellis Island hospital. It was great. The tour guide was very well informed and the tour was fascinating.

    Everything Untapped NY does is awesome! I love it! I became a paid member because I like them so much!
    Steven S
    5/03/2021
  • 5 star ratingThis a must-see for history buffs, lovers of New York lore and those who want to understand how we treated immigrants in our past so much better, with more dignity and care than we do know. Our guide was very passionate, knowledgeable and generous. Extraordinary history, breathtaking views and you will meet really interesting people. thanks Untapped Cities
    MARK M
    12/30/2019
    5 star ratingExcellent tour. Our guide Jim was not only completely knowledgeable but very enthusiastic. We had a great time and would do another with this company. I also had a ticket issue, and their customer service was fast and took care of the problem without issue.
    317annieg
    12/09/2019
  • 5 star ratingWhat a great tour. Jim our guide was enthusiastic, knowledgeable and friendly. The tour was fascinating and I loved every minute! Brilliant!
    leann10
    12/03/2019
    5 star ratingSimply one of the best tours we have ever done! The tour was absolutely fascinating amd engaging from beginning to end. You can really feel the history and the guide's stories really bring the place to life. Worth every cent and highly recommend
    BrightonBoxer
    11/11/2019
  • 5 star ratingWe had an amazing guide who guided us through en old hospital building on Ellis island. A thrilling, mesmerizing and educational tour. During almost two hours our guide entertained us with his stories about the abandoned hospital...
    712kimv
    11/10/2019
    5 star ratingMost in-depth & entertaining tour I've had in NYC! It is apparent that our guide enjoys researching history & sharing his knowledge with others.
    FLGirl4751
    11/10/2019
  • 5 star ratingI thoroughly enjoyed this tour. So much interesting history on Ellis Island. Our tour guide Brett was so knowledgeable and fun. Thank you Untapped Cities for a beautiful day. I took their advice to arrive early to clear security at the ferry, definitely good advice since the line grows quickly. Smooth sailing over to Ellis Island and had time to tour the main building as well.
    Cyncity3
    11/05/2019

About This Tour:

Explore the abandoned Ellis Island Hospital complex, once the standard for United States medical care and later transformed into a US Coast Guard base and FBI detention center. It has been left to decay for nearly 60 years. Now, Untapped New York partnered with Save Ellis Island to create an exclusive behind-the-scenes hard hat tour of the abandoned hospital. On this experience, you will discover the laundry building, contagious disease wards, autopsy rooms, staff house and so much more as you walk in the footsteps of the immigrants who were there a hundred years ago. While exploring the buildings you will also see several life-size photographs of immigrants pasted on the walls of the abandoned buildings. They are part of JR’s exhibition “Unframed – Ellis Island”.

The 29-building South Side hospital complex is hidden in plain sight, just to the left of disembarking passengers headed towards the Great Hall. Looking at its desolate, skeletal frame now, it’s difficult to imagine its backstory as one of the largest public health undertakings in American history. Join us for our upcoming Ellis Island hospital tour, guided by a Save Ellis Island docent, where we’ll uncover its many, buried secrets.

Save Ellis Island is a non-profit organization whose mission is to raise the funds needed to rehabilitate and repurpose the twenty-nine historic buildings on the south side of Ellis Island for a new and exciting purpose. Your tickets directly contribute to the restorations efforts, so thank you!

 

Any Questions? We're here to help!

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