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Samuel Ellis's heirs sold the island to New York State. The name Ellis Island stuck. Later in the year, the Federal Government bought Ellis Island for $10,000.
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The first Ellis Island Immigration Station was officially opened. The first immigrant to pass through Ellis was Annie Moore, a teenager from County Cork. That first day, three large ships were waiting to land, and 700 immigrants passed through Ellis Island.
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The present Main Building opened. It cost some $1.5 million and was designed to process 5,000 immigrants per day. This was scarcely big enough for the surge in immigration in the pre-World War I years.
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This was the peak year at Ellis Island with 1,004,756 immigrants received. The all-time daily high was on April 17th of 1907 when a total of 11,747 immigrants were processed.
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The first Immigration Quota Law passed the U.S. Congress. No more than 3% of the United States' population could be immigrants of a certain nationality.
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After the U.S. entered the war in 1941, Ellis Island served primarily as a detention center for alien enemies. Approximately 7000 aliens were detained at Ellis Island. Ellis Island was also used as a hospital for returning wounded servicemen and trained about 60,000 servicemen there.
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Ellis Island, with its 33 structures, was closed and declared excess Federal property.
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The largest restoration in American history was undertaken by the non-profit Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc., established in 1982, which raised all the funds from private citizens, corporations, and other groups and oversaw the restoration.
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The Ellis Island Immigration Museum opened to the public. Also unveiled was The American Immigrant Wall of Honor®, the largest wall of names in the world, where individuals can have the name of an immigrant ancestor inscribed for posterity.
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Over 3 million visitors visit Ellis Island in 2018.
