This series of lectures will investigate the history,
archaeology and preservation of New York City’s hospitals,
asylums and quarantine sites. Speakers will include historians,
preservationists, conservators and architects who will enlighten
attendees with the history of these important sites and the ways
in which they are being interpreted and reused today. Case studies
will include the New York Cancer Hospital in Manhattan, Seaview
Hospital-Farm Colony on Staten Island and the Octagon on Roosevelt
Island. The series will conclude with a rare tour of structures
on the south side of Ellis Island that have been closed to the
public for over 50 years and are currently under renovation.
From Health to Home: Adaptive Reuse of
Medical Institutions
Tuesday, September 12, 2006, 6:00pm, General Society of Mechanics
and Tradesmen
What happens to a hospital when it no longer can be used for its
original purpose? This panel will examine three examples. Joan
Berkowitz, architect and partner at Jablonski Berkowitz Conservation
will discuss the restoration and adaptive reuse of the former
New York Cancer Hospital at 455 Central Park West, until recently
one of the city’s most derelict but beloved ruins. Architect
Page Ayres Cowley will discuss the preservation plan developed
for the abandoned Farm Colony-Seaview Hospital campus located
on 320 acres of land on Staten Island. Randall Mason, professor
of planning at the University of Pennsylvania, will discuss the
challenges of preserving Manhattan’s North Brother Island,
once an important New York medical facility, but now primarily
a refuge for migratory birds. The panel will be moderated by preservation
architect Leo J. Blackman.
The Evolution of Sickness: Historic Hospitals
of New York
Tuesday, September 19, 2006, 6:00pm, General Society of Mechanics
and Tradesmen
This panel discussion, moderated by journalist Eve Kahn, will
explore how illness was managed historically in New York City
and the buildings and sites that developed around the treatment
of sickness. Judith Berdy, president of the Roosevelt Island Historical
Society, will describe the island’s history as a hub for
municipal medical and correctional institutions since the 1830's,
many of which are architectural masterworks. Historian Joyce Mendelsohn
will focus on Lillian D. Wald’s nurses’ settlement
on the Lower East Side, later named the Henry Street Settlement.
Founded in 1893 this settlement revolutionized home health care.
Barnett Shepherd, former executive director of the Staten Island
Historical Society, will discuss the founding and development
of the many medical campuses on Staten Island such as Seaman’s
Retreat, Sailors’ Snug Harbor and Seaview Hospital.
The Other Side of the Island: Hardhat
tour of Ellis Island’s Hospital Complex--SOLD
OUT!!
Saturday, September 23, 2006, 10:00am, Location to be announced
upon registration.
In its day the United States Public Health Service hospital for
ill and infirm immigrants – on Ellis Island’s south
side – offered the latest in medical care to immigrants
arriving with “loathsome and contagious disease” who
would have otherwise been denied entry into the United States.
Tourgoers will have the rare opportunity to experience many culturally
significant spaces within Ellis Island’s hospital complex,
all of which have been closed to the public since 1954. The tour,
lead by Save
Ellis Island staff, will follow the path taken by
immigrants detained for medical treatment. Save Ellis Island,
Inc., is the private nonprofit partner of the National Park Service
dedicated to the restoration and adaptive reuse of the island’s
30 unrestored buildings, including those of the south side’s
hospital.
The September 23 tour is sold
out!
Please
check with the Save Ellis Island Foundation for future tours at
http://www.saveellisisland.org/site/PageServer.
