• Significance: The Psychopathic Ward was added to the Ellis Island U. S. Immigration Station hospital complex in 1906-07. The rest of the general hospital on Island 2 was built between 1901 and 1909. Adding this modest two-floor ward pavilion indicated recognition of the need for specific facilities for the observation and treatment of mentally ill immigrants. Revisions to the federal immigration law in 1907 were even more stringent about listing immigrants with mental disorders including “idiots, imbeciles, epileptics, the feeble-minded, [and] insane” as “Class A” or subject to mandatory exclusion. The Psychopathic Ward, later Wards 9 and 10, was used for extended observation of suspected cases, holding the acutely ill until return transport was possible, and detention of immigrants awaiting deportation for mental disorders that manifested with a few years of entering the country. The structure was designed by the New York office of the U. S. Public Buildings Service. This branch of the Office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury was working for the Immigration Bureau of the Department of Commerce and Labor in consultation with the U. S. Marine Hospital and Public Health Service (USMHPHS) surgeons assigned to Ellis Island (after 1912, the U. S. Public Health Service or USPHS). The Psychopathic Ward was partially modeled on Pavilion F of the Albany Medical College. Built in 1902, Pavilion F was an early and influential example of a psychiatric ward attached to a general hospital.

The Psychopathic Ward is a two-story brick building with a flat roof and a rectangular footprint. Each floor housed either male or female patients in private rooms or small wards, with a dayroom and enclosed veranda, office and bath for a nurse, and a pantry/serving kitchen. The exterior materials and detailing blend with the Georgian Revival hospital buildings that flank it, but the Psychopathic Ward has a distinct profile as the only flat roof building in the complex. It is attached to the corridor connecting the Island 2 hospital complex buildings on its north façade.

The USPHS vacated the hospital facilities on March 1, 1951 and the U.S. Coast Guard Port Security Unit at Ellis Island expanded to occupy additional Island 2 and 3 buildings. In November 1952 the Coast Guard converted the interior of Ward 10 (second floor) into a brig facility. The Ellis Island U. S. Immigration Station ceased operation on November 12, 1954 and the complex was largely unoccupied until it was made part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965, under the administration of the U. S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service.

• Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N1678
• Survey number: HABS NY-6086-U
• Building/structure dates: 1906-1907 Initial Construction

This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 66000058.

Related names:

United States Public Building Service

United States Public Health Service

Holding, William F, contractor

Arzola, Robert R, project manager