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The Early Days of Ellis Island...
Ellis Island is no more than a lot of sand in the Hudson River, located just south of Manhattan. The Mohegan Indians who lived on the nearby shores call the island Kioshk, or Gull Island. In the 1630s, a Dutch man, Michael Paauw, acquires the island and renames it Oyster Island for the plentiful amounts of shellfish on its beaches. During the 1700s, it is known as Gibbet Island, for its gibbet, or gallows tree, used to hang men convicted of piracy. -
How it became Ellis Island...
Around the time of the Revolutionary War, the New York merchant Samuel Ellis purchases the island, and builds a tavern on it that caters to local fisherman. Ellis dies in 1794, and in 1808 New York State buys the island from his family for $10,000. The U.S. War Department pays the state for the right to use Ellis Island to build military fortifications and store ammunition, beginning during the War of 1812. Half a decade later, Ellis Island is used as a munitions arsenal for the Union army durin -
Choosing who gets in...
After the Civil War, Ellis Island stands vacant, until the government decides to replace the New York immigration station at Castle Garden, which closes in 1890. Control of immigration is turned over to the federal government, and $75,000 is appropriated for construction of the first federal immigration station on Ellis Island. Artesian wells are dug and the island's size is doubled to over six acres, with landfill created from incoming ships' ballast and the excavation of subway tunnels in New -
Immigration explodes...
The first Ellis Island Immigration Station officially opens on January 1, 1892, as three large ships wait to land. Seven hundred immigrants passed through Ellis Island that day, and nearly 450,000 followed over the course of that first year. Over the next five decades, more than 12 million people will pass through the island on their way into the United States. -
Fire on the Island!
On June 15, 1897, with 200 immigrants on the island, a fire breaks out in one of the towers in the main building and the roof collapses. Though no one is killed, all immigration records dating back to 1840 and the Castle Garden era are destroyed. The immigration station is relocated to the barge office in Manhattan's Battery Park. -
Poor Conditions...
On December 17, 1900, the New York Tribune offered a scathing account of conditions at the Battery station: "Grimy, gloomy...more suggestive of an enclosure for animals than a receiving station for prospective citizens of the United States." In response, the New York architectural firm Boring & Tilton reconstructs the immigrant station on Ellis Island at a total cost of $1.5 million. The new fireproof facility is officially opened in December, and 2,251 people pass through on opening day.
To pre -
Not enough space...
To create additional space at Ellis Island, two new islands are created using landfill. Island Two houses the hospital administration and contagious diseases ward, while Island Three holds the psychiatric ward. By 1906, Ellis Island has grown to more than 27 acres, from an original size of only three acres.
Anarchists are denied admittance into the U.S. as of 1903. On April 17, 1907, an all-time daily high of 11,747 immigrants received is reached; that year, Ellis Island experiences its highest -
War Breaks Out!
World War I begins in 1914, and immigration to the U.S. slows dramatically. Ellis Island experiences a sharp decline in receiving immigrants: From 178,416 in 1915, the total drops to 28,867 in 1918. Anti-immigrant sentiment increases after the U.S. enters the war in 1917; approximately 1,800 German citizens are seized on ships in East Coast ports and interned at Ellis Island before being deported.
Starting in 1917, Ellis Island operates as a hospital for the U.S. Army, a way station for Navy per -
Limits on Immigration...
President Warren G. Harding signs the Immigration Quota Act into law in 1921, after booming post-war immigration results in 590,971 people passing through Ellis Island. According to the new law, annual immigration from any country cannot exceed 3 percent of the total number of immigrants from a country living in the U.S. in 1910. The National Origins Act of 1924 goes even further, limiting total annual immigration to 165,000 and fixing quotas of immigrants from specific countries.
The buildings
