Partners in the Parks: Fire Island to Ellis Island
Joan Digby, Ph.D.
Director, C.W. Post Honors Program and Merit Fellowship

Hosted by the C.W. Post and Brooklyn Campuses of Long Island University, Fire Island to Ellis Island was the first Partners in the Parks program to make use of both rural and urban settings. Honors directors Joan Digby (C.W. Post) James Clarke and Cris Gleicher (Brooklyn) joined forces to create an extremely diverse and intense week of programming.

On a brisk May morning with the threat of rain, the students who had come from Vermont, Maryland, Massachusetts, West Virginia, Tennessee, Texas and Colorado joined several New Yorkers to sail on the Christeen, the only 19th century gaff rigged oyster schooner on the historic register. At the command of Captain Pete Macandrew they hauled away and raised the majestic sails. With a strong wind behind us, we sailed through Oyster Bay, over the Pine Island oyster beds into Long Island Sound. Under the guidance of marine biologist Buzz Alberry and educator Jeanne Beyer, the students tested water salinity, looked at plankton under a microscope and handled a variety of marine animals from oysters and snails to horseshoe crabs. The boat heeled and the wind blew, but the rain never came. The exhilarating voyage took us past Sagamore Hill, the presidential summer home of Theodore Roosevelt.

This was our next stop after the morning sail. Sagamore Hill is a National Park, and Ranger Charles Markis, Chief of Interpretation and Visitor Services, opened the house to us for his in-depth tour of the presidential home. Surrounded by animal trophies, animal sculptures (including a bronze rhino used as an extraordinary message board for the family), and scenic paintings, it was easy to grasp the passion that led Roosevelt to set aside the pristine lands that became our national parks. Many of the students were surprised by the strong family feelings in evidence throughout the house. For John Amos Boutwell of Tennessee, Sagamore Hill was a very special place. He was especially taken by T.R.’s standing 4 p.m. “appointment” to play with his children. John intends to work his experiences into a theatrical honors presentation. Roosevelt’s contribution to the greater American “family” became a theme of our shared experience, when we later visited his Manhattan birthplace and walked past the grand equestrian statue of Roosevelt in front of the American Museum of Natural History.

Our connections both to parks and park rangers deepened throughout the week. All the rangers who guided our group made us feel very special and extended themselves beyond our wildest expectation. As Brandi Bishop put it, “Above and beyond—they were so knowledgeable!” When we took the ferry to Fire Island, for example, we discovered that Ranger Kristin Santos was aboard our ship and ready to take us on our first hike through a salt marsh. She clearly knew we were coming and greeted us with great enthusiasm. Her walk opened us up to the protective yet fragile ecosystem between the Great South Bay and the Atlantic beach. It was both figuratively and literally illuminating, taking us in a light mist along a picturesque boardwalk that wound through the marsh, among groves of oak and blueberry. Along the route, she pointed out important trees and shrubs, warning us to steer clear of the poison ivy! Soon another Ranger, Justine Stefanelli, joined our group. She would be taking us to our overnight quarters—which turned out to be the Superintendent’s cozy lodge. Indeed, Justine not only took us on a four-mile beach hike, pointing out the seaweed, shipwreck evidence, geology of sand coloration, configuration of the dunes, and the biology of horse shoe crabs, she stayed with us over night to lead the group on a thirteen mile hike toward the lighthouse at Robert Moses Park. It was a great day. Rain gave way to a calm spring evening, and a mother fox with four kits showed herself and the family to our excited students. Our photojournalism major, Nicole DeSantis, managed to capture a portrait of one little kit.

The day of our thirteen mile hike was bright and sunny. We trekked on the beach and through a string of Fire Island towns—the Pines, Cherry Grove, Ocean Beach, Atlantique, Kismet and others—each with its distinct history, community and architecture. Our ranger Justine explained how these towns had come to be part of the National Seashore, and entertained us with local lore as well as stories about the old Post Office at Cherry Grove, Truman Capote, and a house now owned by the Park Service where Judy Garland used to vacation. After lunch and a visit to the Ranger Station at Sailors Haven, Ranger Rosemary O’Day joined us for an exploration of the Sunken Forest and explained how salt and sand dunes help to create this unique ecological niche on a barrier island. The final stretch of the hike was arduous but we were cheered on by the company of the rangers and the goal of seeing the lighthouse.

Surrounded by ocean and bay, watching the waves with no other visitors in sight, it was hard to believe that we would go, as Nicole expressed it, “from the peacefulness of Fire Island to the bustle of the city.” But that was exactly what we did. Since one of the program’s themes was New York as a city of “water,” a boat ride to Ellis Island fit right in. But this was not the standard ferry. We went aboard the National Park Service staff vessel, thanks to Ranger Katherine Craine, our host for the day. It was amazing to shoot across New York harbor as VIPs at this crowded tourist destination, especially during Fleet Week with the Navy in town. But Kathy made it happen and the day was pure magic. Nicole commented more than once about how personal all the rangers were and what passion they had for their jobs—“especially Kathy,” she wrote. Her enthusiasm was contagious.

Before other visitors arrived we were privileged to visit Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty museum. The construction of this massive sculpture with its Eiffel armature and flexible hinged supports were displayed in a fascinating exhibit. Mark Michelman, a chemical engineering major, took particular interest in the discussion of metals and their interaction. Kathy stood beside a model of the Miss Liberty’s foot. A small woman, she seemed even more petite in context. With her we circled the statue from every angle, learning more than we could have imagined. Another brief boat trip and we were at Ellis Island. Since Alex Coffman is interested in historic preservation, we asked to see some of the buildings that had not yet been restored. Ranger Dennis Mulligan got out the hard hats and took us through two islands that served as hospitals, quarantine, psychiatric and isolation wards—looking ahead to future plans that might restore them as a conference center and high end boutique hotel—with a view of The Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan. It seemed clear that the students would be following the progress of restoration and hoping to return one day to see these buildings in their new life.

With Ellis Island clearly in mind, a second theme emerged. How many thousands of people traveled troubled waters to come to America. Having seen the great hall of immigrants our consciousness of ethnic diversity came more sharply into focus as we traveled by subway from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back.

In New York patterns of immigration are often best understood through food—as many students noted. Dim Sum in Chinatown was a very special experience, but street pretzels, genuine pizza, Nathan’s hot dogs at Coney Island, Junior’s cheese cake, and egg creams ran close seconds.

We breakfasted at Katz’s delicatessen on the Lower East Side (where some of us ate blintzes while Jessica Byerly tucked into a corned beef sandwich!) and experienced fascinating tours at the Tenement Museum, a unique living history museum in an actual tenement building linked to the National Park Service. Among our own group there were many backgrounds—German, Irish, Chinese, African American, Italian, English, Spanish, Russian, Polish, and various mixtures—you get the idea. Our guide, Carlo d’Amore, was himself an immigrant from Peru, who lived in the tenement on the corner of the block that housed the museum. In his tour, “Piecing Things Together,” we entered an apartment that was also a tailor shop and saw how clothing was manufactured in the first decades of the twentieth century. Our guide talked about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, and as it happened Cris Gleicher’s grandmother left her employment at that tragic place just one week before the fire. The connection in context was chilling!

On another day we visited the aristocratic birthplace (reconstructed) of Theodore Roosevelt and within a ten minute subway ride the African Burial Ground, where park rangers Patricia Leonard and Tara Morrison conveyed the sad history associated with this plot of land, now incorporated within a government building. There we were joined by LIU Brooklyn Campus Professor Vidhya Swaminathan, a veteran of Partner’s Bryce exploration and an expert on the history of the slave trade. The marginalizing of African Americans and the slave history of New York and Long Island were important themes during our week.

And so it was a theme on our final Saturday afternoon when we visited the recently discovered Seneca Village in Central Park with docent Anthony Gosse. Although no remains have been unearthed, maps reveal a well-established village of free landowners, mostly African American, who lived in northern Manhattan until 1835, when they were evicted to build the park. Perhaps in time their full story will be unearthed. Until then, we can only imagine. And that we did also at Strawberry Fields, where people still place flowers every day on the Imagine mosaic dedicated to the memory of John Lennon. “I never knew how large Central Park was. I loved the diversity of the park. It was amazing,” wrote Brandi.

Then she took a nap on the grass, along with most of the others who fell asleep reading the books they bought at the Tenement Museum. For dinner we gathered at a restaurant in Harlem, Miss Mamie’s Spoonbread Too, for some delicious Southern soul food and leisurely conversation about the week’s events. It was a satisfying end to a great adventure we hope to repeat for other students in years to come.

Posted: June 26, 2008