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The most ignored building on campus (tours)

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Quick Quiz:  Name the most beautiful building on any college campus that student tour guides do their best to ignore.

Answer:  The College Chapel.  (I know, the picture at the top gave it away.)

Based on my experience now with 17 campus tours in the past year,  colleges are doing everything possible to ignore their chapels when selling their schools to prospective students and their parents.

We’ve seen it time and time again on our most recent northeast tour as we visit some of the most beautiful and well-maintained campuses this country has to offer.  These schools just ooze heritage.  We’ve toured an amazing adaptation of an old swimming pool into a state-of-the-art concert hall.  We’ve seen an old field house turned into a lively student union.  Two historic structures on one campus are under complete renovation as they become 21st century academic buildings.  In every instance – no matter the school – we’re given the full fire hose of information about the reuse of these older buildings.

But when we pass arguably the loveliest historic buildings on campus – the chapels – our gregarious and perky tour guides turn into stone trolls unable to speak.  The presentation usually begins, “We use to be affiliated with the Episcopal/Presbyterian/Congregationalist/Quaker/choose your own denomination, but we aren’t anymore.”  They quickly add that the chapels are now used for multi-faith services (something to celebrate, if you ask me) and other very important and useful community-outreach activities.  And yet their body language says, “You’ll have to shoot me before I’ll take you inside to see these beautiful spaces.”

I know, I know.  Students don’t give a damn about the chapels, and most of their parents don’t either.  When you are working to capture the essence of an institution in an hour (the ideal time frame for a college tour from a parents’ point of view, by the way), you have to talk about the selling points of your school…and historic chapels are far down the list for a significant majority of the visiting population.

But then there’s this historic preservationist in the group who just wants to see these buildings.  So after figuring out the pattern, I’ve started wandering off with my camera.  I know there will be something worth seeing.

Today was like so many others on this trip, but the difference is I ended up getting inside and reveling in special spaces that contribute so much to what makes two very fine colleges unique.  I want to highlight one of them.

The chapel at Bates College was a two-fer:  a beautiful building AND three organs, including a small historic one and a modern mechanical-action organ.  When we arrived, the chapel was empty and was semi-dark, so it was the perfect place to spend about 15-20 minutes and gather one’s thoughts for the day.

“Though it was built in 1913, the Bates College Chapel remains to this day one of the most architecturally interesting buildings on campus. Financed by Mrs. D. Willis James and dedicated on the eve of World War I, the Chapel’s design came from the Boston firm of Coolidge and Carlson, but the inspiration for its Gothic construction came from the King’s College Chapel at Cambridge University, which was built in the fifteenth century by Henry Vl. The structure is English Collegiate Gothic in style, and the seam-faced Quincy granite used in its construction gives the building its distinctive light coloring. Two aspects of the exterior are particularly interesting: the porch entrance based on the Galilee Porch of a cathedral in Durham, England, and the Tudor arches, which add to the basic Gothic style of the rest of the building.“

The interior pews and floors are of wood, and the ceiling is crossed by heavy beams which give the chapel much of its distinctive flavor.

I got really excited, however, when I saw two of the organs in the Bates chapel.  As regular readers of More to Come… know, I am a big fan of mechanical action (or tracker) organs.  As soon as I turned around to face the rear of the room, I exclaimed to Candice, “They have a modern tracker organ here!”

“The organ located in the rear gallery is the third instrument to occupy the Chapel. It was installed in 1982, replacing the Esty organ, which underwent a major restoration in 1953. The present organ was built by Hellmuth Wolff of Laval, Canada, and its Renaissance-style case of stained white oak was inspired by the organ in St. Geroen, Cologne. The pipeshades, of hand-carved butternut wood, reflect some of the wood carvings found elsewhere in the Chapel.

The organ is a thirty-six-stop, mechanical-action instrument of eclectic design. The pipes in the facade are speaking pipes, made of an alloy of tin and lead.“

It is a lovely instrument, that no doubt gives great pleasure to the Bates College community.

The chapel also has a sweet little historical organ at the front of the room (seen in the left of the photo  below), which according to the college website was built by Henry Erben in 1850. Erben was the finest of the mid-nineteenth century American organ builders.

We all loved Bates and the beautiful campus.

Not that anyone asked, but my advice to admissions officers and college tour guides is to simply ask if anyone would like to see your historic chapel.  You may not have any takers, but when you do, you’ll know you can showcase one of the loveliest – and most interesting – places on campus that speaks eloquently as to who you are.

More to come…

DJB

Image: The chapel at Bates College

Snapshots

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Snapshots (visual and otherwise) from the road, including…

#1 – We all laughed when we saw the bumper sticker pictured at the top of the post in Brattleboro, VT – that hot bed of liberalism – which reads, “Caution!  I don’t Brake for Right Wing Nut Jobs!”

#2 – The best food in America is being served in small, independent cafes and restaurants.  Our two-week streak of not eating in a chain restaurant is intact!

#3 – Just about the best turkey sandwich I’ve ever eaten was made at Amy’s Bakery Arts Cafe in Brattleboro.  The turkey was perfect, and the cranberry chutney and sourdough bread only made it better.

#4 – After hearing about the wonderful Ragged Mountain Club in New Hampshire from our friends John and Bizzy Lane for decades, we finally made a visit and found out they were right on the money.  What a great place to spend a summer!  Andrew swam across the pond, making that the second body of water he’s crossed on this vacation (the first being Lake Mohonk in New York).  God, I wish I could swim like my children.

#5 – We’ve just arrived in downtown Portland, Maine, and what a great place! The Old Port Historic District is hopping.  We’re staying at the wonderful Portland Regency Hotel, located in a historic armory.  The Regency is yet another terrific member of the Historic Hotels of America group.

#6 – It made my day when the lovely young server at Mornings in Paris handed me two beautiful cups of cappuccino this evening, and then smiled at me and said, “Damn, those look good!”  She was right.

We’re down to the last four college visits, plus the Maine coast.  I’m having a lot of fun!

More to come…

DJB

A Few (More) Observations from the Road

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Two years ago today, I was blogging during a tour of the American Southwest and made a few short observations from the road.  This year we’re touring New England and I have a few more observations to share.

Observation #1:  Our family tends to gravitate to the food choices in the book 1000 Places to See Before You Die. I wrote a few days ago that we visited Pepe’s Pizza in New Haven.  Today we found Lickety Split ice cream store in Williamstown, Massachusetts.  I’m not sure how long our waist-lines can stand this focus of our travel.  Luckily, I’ve also found the fitness room every day along the way.

Observation #2:  The Porches Inn in North Adams (pictured above and also listed in 1000 Places) is just about the coolest property of the 200+ hotels that are members of Historic Hotels of America (HHA).   The twins and I stayed here about 2 1/2 years ago, and we couldn’t wait to get back and show it to Candice.  As the marketing materials describe it,

Porches is the most visible manifestation, to-date, of the changes (in a revitalized North Adams) sparked by MASS MoCA.  Its 50-plus rooms of retro-edgy, industrial granny chic ambiance makes a spirited lodging statement in New England and beyond….The interiors mix striking, colorful style with homage to the generations of mill workers’ families who lived here.

We love it.

Observation #3:  There are still many traditional New England landscapes and villages to be enjoyed as one travels.  Stockbridge, Massachusetts, with the venerable Red Lion Inn where we stayed last evening, is just one example.  The Red Lion is another terrific HHA and the look and pace are pure 19th (if not 18th) century!

Observation #4:  Chesterwood, the summer home and studio of Daniel Chester French, is one of the most beautiful and unknown National Trust Historic Sites in the US.  We toured this magical place yesterday with director Donna Hassler and her staff, and loved the museum, studio, and wooded landscape.  If you get a chance, check out the Contemporary Sculpture Show at Chesterwood, which is up through October 11th.  If you are there this weekend, stop in to see the first working sculptor in the studio since Margaret French, Daniel Chester French’s daughter who left the property to the National Trust.

Observation #5:  If we had a cheat sheet telling us which buildings were used for what purpose, any one of us could give a pretty fair college tour by now!

I’m actually joking on that last point.  We’ve met some wonderful (and wonderfully perky) young men and women over the past few days who obviously love their schools.

That’s it for now.  We head off tomorrow to visit dear friends in New Hampshire, so we have a one-day break from the college visit routine.  But we’ll pay for that when we work in four over the last two days!

More to come…

DJB

Mohonk Mount House

Just another wonderful visit to Mohonk Mountain House

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Any year is special when one has the chance to visit Mohonk Mountain House twice in a twelve-month period.  That makes 2010 a great year!

I was last here in April for a business meeting, and I wrote about the experience on More to Come…. This weekend, it has been all pleasure with the family on their first visit to this unique place.

So rather than write, I’ll just post pictures of the buildings and landscape around Lake Mohonk along with photos of the family enjoying the weekend. We’ve been bouldering (well, Andrew and Claire took the hike that doubles as rock climbing), enjoying the fantastic spa and fitness club, touring the beautiful gardens, swimming in the lake, hiking to the tower where the picture at the top of the post was taken, and eating more gourmet food than I care to remember. Luckily, if you can hike, run, and swim you feel you’re fighting back against the expanding waistline. I think we’re ready to tackle a second week of college visits!

So here’s my final post from Mohonk in 2010, written in a rocking chair on the porch overlooking the lake.  Let’s hope 2011 is another special year.

More to come…

DJB

Architecture Old and New

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Too often college campuses can be poorly designed landscapes for a hodgepodge of mediocre buildings.  So when you come across good – or great – buildings in the academic setting it is a real treat.

On this year’s vacation/college tour, we’ve seen some of both, but I’m pleased to say we’ve been fortunate in visiting colleges that through the years have been thoughtful about their buildings and their settings.

We’ve now become old pros at the campus tour.  Andrew and Claire head off with one tour guide so they aren’t intimidated (if they ever are) by having the folks in the same group.  Candice and I then follow a second guide.  Candice pays attention to what the guide is saying, while keeping her eye trained on the design and maintenance of the buildings.  I take pictures of the architecture and any landscape feature that strikes my fancy.  We all come together at the end and share what we’ve seen and heard.

Hey, it works for us!

At the end of week one, we’ve seen some great buildings and several beautifully conceived and landscaped campuses.  While you would expect that I’d have my eye on the historic buildings, there have also been some modernist structures that caught our attention.

The photo at the top of the post is of Frank Gehry’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College.  It was raining the day we saw this building and the photo doesn’t do it justice.  But this is a very good piece of architecture that works well in its setting – something that’s important for Gehry’s sculptured designs.  I think Boston Globe architecture critic Robert Campbell got it right in describing this as a performance piece that works once in this setting.  The brushed stainless steel covering is beautiful – even in the rain.

When visiting the Yale campus, we certainly saw what some critics call “one of the nation’s richest sites for modernist architecture.” While driving, we turned a corner in New Haven and came upon the David S. Ingalls Hockey Rink, one of the best known buildings of Eero Saarinen.   Much has been written about this 1958 building, but at first look it doesn’t disappoint.  Saarinen’s swooping roof certainly captures the motion of ice skating in a unique and unforgettable way.

I’ve shown it in an earlier post this week, but Gordon Bunshaft’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale is worth a second look.  Andrew and I toured around the building and inside as well, and were both surprised and taken with the translucent marble that allows beautiful, low-level light into the library.

Yesterday was my first visit to the Vassar campus, which is a treasure trove of good design, both old and new.  The Main Building – a National Historic Landmark which once held every element of the school – was designed by Smithsonian architect James Renwick, Jr.

The Cesar Pelli-designed renovation in 2003 of the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film (shown below), which preserved the original 1860s facade of Avery Hall but was an entirely new structure, may not be every preservationist’s delight.  But along with the Ferry Building, designed by Marcel Breuer, and Pelli’s Lehman Loeb Art Center, the campus has certainly made a name for itself with modernist architecture.

But, I must admit I’m a sucker for great libraries and the Thompson Memorial Library at Vassar didn’t disappoint.  The outside is fine early 20th century Gothic, but the inside is terrific.  I could study here all day!  As a friend of mine said in response to an earlier post, these really are cathedrals for learning.

The first week of vacation has been an architectural treat.  From this point on, it may be more about the landscapes…which isn’t a bad thing to look forward to from my perspective.  Just keep an eye open for more over the next few days.

More to come…

DJB

The people and places on Main Street

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There are few things I like better than walking along a great Main Street.

For the past two days, I’ve been lucky enough to walk around four terrific Main Streets:  Middletown, Connecticut; Amherst and Northampton, Massachusetts; and tiny Red Hook, NY.

You can pick up life lessons on Main Street – like the bumper sticker I saw on a car parked along Northampton’s Main Street this morning:  Just say NO to Negativity.

You can also meet very interesting people.  While taking photos around Northampton, I was approached by a resident of the streets of the city.  He must have seen my inner preservationist (sometimes people who look at the world a little differently have great powers of observation), because he told me he liked to work for the “hysterical society.”  He then proceeded to point out the historical courthouse (where Calvin Coolidge first practiced law) – a very nice 1885 building seen in the photo above.

My new friend then pointed in the opposite direction and identified the Northampton City Hall.  “See those turrets?” he asked.  “Every time I look at them I expect to see archers peering over the top.”  And then he extended his arms as if shooting a bow and arrow.  Take a look for yourself and see if you don’t agree.

As he left me to go have his morning coffee in the basement of The First Church, this local historian pointed out that Jonathan Edwards, the great Puritan theologian, had preached in that very building.  It was a nice history lesson to start the day.

Last evening we stayed at the Hotel Northampton, which is part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s  Historic Hotels of America group.  This is a wonderful establishment, located right in the heart of Main Street.  We enjoyed the restaurant, the staff, the rooms, and the ambiance.

You can also eat well on Main Street.  Over the past few days we’ve yet to visit a chain restaurant, but have enjoyed some tasty local meals at the New England Emporium in Middletown, the Fresh Side in Amherst, and the gourmet J & J’s Cafe in Red Hook.  Everyone’s enjoying trying out the local fare.

And to be neighborly, one should plan on doing a little shopping along Main Street.  I’ll have to admit, I may have gone overboard on this point but it isn’t every Main Street that has a fabulous instrument store along the lines of the Fretted Instrument Workshop in Amherst, where they had JUST the type of guitar I’ve been looking for over the past year.  The proprietors, Tony and Mario, listened to me play on several instruments, and then brought out a used Parlor guitar in great condition made by Rick Davis at Running Dog Guitars.  I was sold.

Hey, I’ll admit it isn’t every day you find the guitar of your dreams on Main Street, but you can always find great people, great food, and great places.

More to come…

DJB

Image: Courthouse in Northampton, Massachusetts

Two Years and There’s Still More to Come

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I began writing More to Come… two years ago as a way to keep friends and loved ones updated during a family trip out west.  As I wrote I found I enjoyed capturing not only experiences from travels, but also observations about books I was reading, music I was hearing, or simply life.  The feedback was also positive (probably helped by my admonition in the “About” section that if you didn’t like what I was writing you should “get your own blog”).

Two years later I find myself on another vacation with the family and More to Come… has over 300 posts to date.  So look forward to some more vacation reports.  I should warn you that it is that type of vacation that hits families with teenagers:  the college visits.  We’re in the northeast for this trip, and while I won’t bore you (or embarrass my kids) with litanies of schools visited and reactions to the tours, I will post a few stories and photos  along the way of great architecture and interesting people met.

The Sterling Memorial Library at Yale (pictured at the top of the post) is one of those spaces that is the very definition of a college library.  My late mother, the librarian, would have loved seeing the rows and rows of card catalog boxes that remain.  It was interesting to explain card catalogs to teenagers…almost as much fun as explaining S&H green stamps which were the basis of the fortune that made the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library – pictured below – possible.

There’s more public art, memorials and sculpture on college campuses that I recall in my day.  Maya Lin’s well-known Yale memorial, The Women’s Table, is but one example of several we’ve seen.

Besides seeing the architecture, we’ve had a wonderful time meeting friends old and new.  Just three quick examples:

1) As we were getting ready to pull over for gas in New Jersey, a car comes beside us and the passenger is waving frantically.  It turns out that it is one of Claire’s best friends from school with her parents on their way to, yes, visit colleges.  We stopped at the gas plaza and had a wonderful chat to compare itineraries.

2) At one of our colleges, we made our tour and then called two new friends, who we actually met through a blog post on More to Come…. I had written about an article I admired, and the wife in the couple – who was the author – found my comments through Google search.  To cut to the chase, we had mutual friends and both were members of the faculty of one of the children’s top choices.  We had a delightful hour over gin and tonics and lemonade learning about their school and talking about the college crawl.

3) After staying at a hotel the first night of the trip, I was headed over to pick up the car when I ran into a colleague from work.  It turns out four of my work colleagues were meeting that very morning in the lobby of the same hotel.   We laughed at the chance encounter and caught up on an upcoming visit to Hartford.  Later on in the trip I’ll see another colleague when we make a side visit to Chesterwood, a National Trust Historic Site.

So, we’re off and running.  Three days, four colleges, and our first night in a Historic Hotel of America (HHA)  –  so far.  The pace slows down as we get toward some R&R this weekend.  By the end of the trip we’ll have added nine colleges to our list of places seen, and will have stayed in six HHAs.  I’m not going to write about the colleges, but keep tuned to this space to hear about some great historic hotels.

More to come…

DJB

After Pepe’s Pizza, Only 999 to Go!

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Some time ago Candice purchased the book 1000 Places to See Before You Die:  USA and Canada to spur us to find some interesting places to visit as we traveled.  So as we headed out to the northeast for vacation and college tours (not in that order), she picked it up and began to check what was on the list in the cities we planned to see.

If the first day is any indication, we’re going to eat well.  As we pulled into New Haven, she read,

You can appreciate the city’s self-anointed role as ‘Pizza Capital of the World’ by visiting Little Italy, specifically Wooster Street, where a few acclaimed pizza joints stand cheek by jowl, the most famous being Frank Pepe’s, which has been turning out incomparably delicious thin-crust pies since 1925.

Never one to pass up “the most famous” of any restaurant, we went, stood in line for 45 minutes on a Monday evening, and then entered the no-frills dining room (we were in booth 17) where we feasted on two fabulous white pizzas and one tomato pie.  We were amazed at how much the four of us consumed, but the combination of the thin crust and the hunger from a long day in the car helped us finish off most of our dinner.

Highly recommended.  One down…999 to go!

More to come…

DJB

The Gospel Truth

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I love books that force you to turn page after page because you want to see what comes next.

Dirk Hayhurst’s The Bullpen Gospels, which was released this spring, is that type of book.

Claire has to read a memoir for school this summer.  I’ve thought about recommending this book…and then I remember the foul language, the sophomoric pranks, and the detailed descriptions of every body part – male and female – known to man.  But seriously, she could do a lot worse than The Bullpen Gospels.

Hayhurst is a relief pitcher who has played in the Padres and Blue Jays organizations.  On its face, The Bullpen Gospels is his recounting of the 2007 minor league season, where he played in Single-A and Double-AA ball.  You will laugh your ass off at the antics of ballplayers working to get to The Show.  (Sorry, it is hard to get the language of minor league players out of your mind after reading The Bullpen Gospels.)  Riding home on the train last evening, I laughed out loud twice reading things that can’t be repeated in a family oriented blog.

But this book is about much more than baseball, long bus rides, and fleabag hotels.  Hayhurst is a sensitive soul willing to identify his vulnerabilities.  He’s also a terrific writer (reminding me of the scene from Bull Durham where Crash Davis is described as someone who “once read a book without pictures.”)  As he recounts his improvement over the past year to his minor league pitching coach, Hayhurst finds the words to describe his success both inside and outside baseball.

‘What do  you think is the biggest difference from this last year to this?’ he (pitching coach Abby) asked…

I took a moment to reflect.  I thought about how my mental approach changed and how I might explain it in a way that didn’t seem as if I had developed a marijuana problem or had wanted Abby to join a cult or, at the very least, convince him I needed a therapist.

‘Well,’ I began, ‘I won’t say I just don’t care about what happens out there, because I do.  I want to win when I take the mound.  However, I don’t care about what I can’t control once I’m out there.  I mean, the way I figure it is, I’m going to go out there and give everything I’ve got.  I’m going to go right after guys.  It’s all or nothing.  I guess this year I’m fine with the nothing part.  I’m not afraid of failing.’…

‘Let me ask you something,’ Abby said.  ‘Why would you ever go out there with any other mind-set?’ In his matter-of-fact country accent, he made it sound as if the things I just spoke were blatantly obvious facts everyone in the game already knew….’I mean, shit, what were you thinking all those other years?’

‘Look,’ I said, ‘it’s different for everyone I suppose, but I put so much stock in what it meant to be a baseball player, I became afraid to fail at it.  I’d be out of a job and out of an identity.  I thought I’d lose everything without it.’…

Abby mulled over my words for a moment, then sat up from his chair.  ‘You know baseball isn’t a hiding place, don’t ya?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean, this is a profession, not an existence.  You can’t hide from it, no matter how well you’re doing.  I’ve coached a lot of guys, and some of them have all the success in the world but no means to enjoy it.  When they’re done, they ain’t got nothing even when they have everything.’

I stared at him, waiting for more information, but it did not come….’Well, whatever yer thinking about now, keep thinking it.  Keep doing what you are a doing.  Yer havin’ a great season so far, and there ain’t no reason you can’t keep having it.’

The Bullpen Gospels received great reviews, including favorable comparisons to Ball Four and Catcher in the Rye, and comments that it is “one of the best baseball books ever written,” and “the best sports book written in the last ten years.”  Bob Mitchell wrote one of the more insightful reviews when he said,

Yes, Virginia, there is a big-league ballplayer who can write a memoir all by himself that is not a whistle-blowing, naming-of-names diatribe, but rather an intelligent, articulate, profound, brutally honest, self-effacing, funny, touching book about the painful but rewarding relationship between baseball and life.  Dirk Hayhurst’s The Bullpen Gospels is a from-the-heart, refreshingly stereotype-busting account of a year in his minor league pitching career that reveals him not as a number on a uniform or a bunch of stats or a grinning face on a baseball card, but a vulnerable, humble, flesh-and-blood real person with real feelings.  Gospels is a funny bone-tickling, tear duct-stimulating, feel-good story that will leave die-hard baseball fans—and die-hard human beings, for that matter—well, feeling good.

Pick up a copy of The Bullpen Gospels for your summer reading list.  But don’t be surprised if you find it more than a light summer read.

More to come…

DJB

Save ALL Of Ellis Island

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Last week I was in New York and had the opportunity to tour the South Side of Ellis Island.

It was my first trip to this evocative place where as many as 40% of Americans can trace their initial experience in this country.  From the Save Ellis Island website, here are the basic facts:

The Ellis Island Immigration Station opened on Ellis Island in January of 1892. It served as the primary immigration center for the United States from 1892 until 1954 when it was closed. Facilities were built to house and feed immigrants while they waited for their identification papers to be processed. A state-of-the-art hospital complex treated and cured most sick immigrants in order for them to be permitted entry into the country. More than 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954, reaching a peak of 1.25 million in 1907. It has been estimated that 40% of Americans today can trace at least one ancestor’s entry into the United States through Ellis Island.

It is the early twentieth-century state-of-the-art hospital complex, located on the south side of the island, that was the focus of my visit.  My employer, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, has been working with government agencies such as the National Park Service and private organizations for two decades to save this special place.  (I encourage you to visit the link and get an update on the preservation of Ellis Island.)  Recently we’ve been helping the nonprofit organization Save Ellis Island (SEI) that’s focused its work on the preservation of the hospital buildings.  SEI works closely with the Park Service and the State of New Jersey (which owns most of the island) in all its work.

I took along my camera to meetings with the SEI staff.  The buildings on the south side have been stabilized but – as you can see – are still in need of restoration.  The ghosts and stories are everywhere.  My pictures, taken on a dull, rainy day, don’t convey the power of this place, but I hope you’ll get a sense of why all of Ellis Island is worth saving.  It is only when you can see the hospital complex that you understand the full range of the immigration station.

As we say at the National Trust:  This Place Matters!

We’ll begin with the view one sees coming in on the ferry of the Main Station, where immigrants were processed.

The main station was beautifully restored by the Park Service in one of its largest preservation projects ever.  Here’s the interior hall of the second floor.

The restored space is beautiful, but it is when one heads over to the hospital wing – which isn’t currently open to the public – that you begin to understand the complexity of this place and the multitude of emotions that must have overtaken immigrants to a new country who were taken here for treatment.  These are stories that need to be told and places that need to be seen by the public as well.  This is a shot of the infamous corridor that linked the various wards.

As a state-of-the-art facility, the wards featured extensive light and ventilation.  Here’s a typical ward off the corridor.  The beds would have been placed between the windows, which have been closed as part of the stabilization project.

The exteriors on the South Side continue to show deterioration.  Here are several shots that point to the craftsmanship of the work and the need for restoration.

And this final shot, which to my mind is the most poignant.  This is a view from within the infectious disease ward.  The Statue of Liberty is in sight, but to these patients – most of whom never made it out of the hospital – it might as well have been a million miles away.

Many thanks to Darcy Hartman of Save Ellis Island for the tour, the wonderful information, but most importantly for the work that she and her colleagues do every day to save this place that says so much about America.  We truly are a nation of immigrants.

More to come…

DJB