The National Park Service

June 24, 2022

First LGBTQ+ National Park Service visitor center to open at NYC’s Stonewall Inn

The National Park Service's first LGBTQ+ visitor center will open at Greenwich Village's Stonewall Inn, organizers announced this week. Pride Live, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, officially broke ground on the future 3,700-square-foot Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center (SNMVC), expected to open in 2024. Located at 51 Christopher Street, the center will sit directly next to the historic Stonewall Inn and provide a space to learn about the Stonewall Rebellion in its original location.
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January 22, 2018

Cuomo says New York will pay $65K per day to keep Statue of Liberty open during shutdown

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday said the state of New York will pay $65,000 per day to reopen the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island during the ongoing federal government shutdown, which forced the park to close over the weekend. Cuomo said the state made an agreement with the Department of the Interior, which oversees the National Park Service, to keep New York Harbor's landmark open. The government closed midnight on Saturday after Republican and Democrats in Congress failed to pass an appropriations bill. "The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of freedom and opportunity for all, and it is a gross injustice that this administration's dysfunction caused it to shut down," Cuomo said. "When this administration tries to deport immigrants, when they close down the Statue of Liberty, they are attacking who we are."
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June 2, 2017

New Jersey is the official owner of Ellis Island

Photo via Wiki Commons Sorry, New York. Ellis Island, America’s first and biggest immigration center, technically belongs to New Jersey. In May of 1998, the Supreme Court ended a long-standing argument between New Jersey and the Empire State over who actually owns the Island, as Smithsonian Magazine discovered. Based on a land claims agreement between the two states made before Ellis Island became a gateway for nearly 12 million immigrants, the Court decided it belonged mostly to New Jersey, in addition to the federal government, since it's overseen by the National Park Service.
But it wasn't so easy