![dek](https://content.time.com/time/time75/covers/weekly_pix/images2/900917_week2.jpg)
Week of Sept. 17, 1990
Ellis Island has been abandoned since 1954 to the pigeons and the vandals, discarded like so much else in American history. But now, after a $156 million restoration, the grandiose immigration center, it is hoped, will again attract the crowds this time as tourists.