With huge state and city deficits and empty wallets all around, Ellis Island—the entry point for more than 12 million immigrants between 1892 and 1954—is about the last thing on New Yorkers' minds. It shows, since unless it's able to raise half a million dollars in the next few weeks, the nonprofit in charge of restoring the landmark site will be forced to shut down operations. “If we can’t save Ellis Island, I’d be pretty discouraged,” Peg Breen, president of the New York Landmarks Conservancy told the Times. “There is a great story of America at its best out there. It would be a shame for this country."
Save Ellis Island started up in 1999, partnering with the Parks Service to fix up the site's historic architecture. In 2007 preservationists completed work on the Art Deco style Ferry Building and they've more than half finished the Laundry/Hopital Outbuilding, where immigrants' sheets were washed. To renovate the island's other 27 buildings will cost an additional $350 million.
But not only have private donations stopped rolling in, but the state of New Jersey, which has given as much as $650,000 in past years, isn't pledging a penny for 2011. New York State has been just as stingy, though Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand claims she's lobbying for the preservationists. “We’re lacking a public commitment to the campaign” admitted Judith McAlpin, president of Save Ellis Island.
