History of Castle Garden and Ellis Island
Where did immigrants arrive in NY?
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Before August 1855 - wharfs of Manhattan
August 1, 1855- April 18, 1890 : Castle Garden
April 19, 1890-Dec. 31, 1891: Barge Office
January 1, 1892- June 13, 1897: Ellis Island
June 14, 1897 - Dec 16, 1900: Barge Office
December 17, 1900-1924: Ellis Island
NY State founded the United States' first center for processing arriving immigrants in
1855. It was established on an island off the southwest tip of Manhattan - Castle Garden.
It was hoped that a receiving station off the mainland would serve two purposes : to
prevent people with contagious diseases from entering the country and help arriving
immigrants from the hazards of fraud, robbery and deceit when they first arrived.
Before the creation of Castle Garden in 1855 passengers were allowed to disembark
directly from the ship onto the wharfs of Manhattan.
On April 18, 1890 the Secretary of the Treasury terminated the contract with the NY
State Commissioners of Emigration and assumed control of immigration of the harbor.
NY officials were very upset , and refused to allow the government to use Castle Garden
for immigration. Therefore, on April 19, 1890, the US government established a
temporary processing center for immigrants at the Old Barge Office at the southeast foot
of Manhattan near the US Customs House. A small , swampy piece of federally owned
property was given to the Treasury Dept. to build the first federal immigrant receiving
station. It was called Ellis Island.
Ellis Island opened on January 1, 1892. It was constructed entirely of wood, was three
stories high and designed to handle up to 10,000 immigrants a day. In 1891, the federal
government assumed jurisdiction over all ports, not just NY, so processing centers were
established at other ports.
Just before midnight on June 14, 1897 a fire broke out in the all wooden building on Ellis
Island and it burned to the ground. No ship records were destroyed since they were kept
elsewhere, but all other administrative records for 1855-1890 were lost. The old Barge
Office was again used as a processing center for 3 1/2 years while the new Ellis Island
building was built.
On December 17, 1900 the new steel, brick and stone building on Ellis Island opened.
However, it was too small from the start and would have to be expanded many times.
So, while many of us say our ancestors arrived at Ellis Island - this timeline should help
you see where they _really_ arrived!
All ship manifests for Castle Garden and Ellis Island arrivals (1820-1947) are available
through any FHC or NARA branch. Please see the section on Passenger Ships into NY for
information on searching them.
Ellis Island Timeline
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1886 - Statue of liberty dedicated
1890 - Federal government establishes Bureau of Immigration and selects Ellis Island as
first federal immigration facility; using ballast from incoming ships as landfill, work
begins to double the island's size
1892 - First immigrants pass through Ellis Island, led by Annie Moore age 15 from Ireland
1897- Fire destroys original wood buildings
1900- New Beaux Arts-style immigration center opens at a cost of more than $1 million
1901- In the first full year with the new facility, Ellis Island handles 389,000 immigrants
1907- More than 1 million immigrants pass through Ellis Island, including a record 11,747
in one day.
1917- Congress requires that all immigrants over 16 be literate.
1921- First federal immigration quotas enacted.
1924- National Origins Law tightens quotas and moves immigration processing abroad,
under the direction of U.S. consolates
1943- Ellis Island is used as a detention center for enemy aliens.
1954- Ellis Island is closed and put up for sale as surplus federal property.
1965- The National Park Service take over Ellis Island
1974- Federal government allocates $1 million for Bicentennial cleanup of Ellis Island
1983- Restoration of the main building begins
1990- Ellis Island Immigration Museum opens after nearly $170 million restoration.
Resources
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Ellis Island
http://www.ellisisland.org
American Immigrant Wall of Honor
http://www.wallofhonor.com
*note! This "Wall of Honor" consists of names of arrivals submitted by family members
who have paid either $100 or $200 to have their name listed. It is -not- a reliable database
for genealogy research. It is simply a way to honor your ancestors. I have corresponded
personally with the people in charge of this database and they have informed me that it is not- their policy to give out information on the submitters of the name, so if you find
someone listed there, you will not be able to get information from the organization on who
paid for the name to be listed. Of course, you could do some detective work and try and
find them online somehow, but this is -not- a genealogy database.
Ellis Island Records Database
http://www.ellisislandrecords.org
A new site containing searchable records indexed by members of the LDS Church. This
site was announced in April 2001, and at the time of this writing is very busy and not fully
functional. Also, users note it is ripe with mistakes, so use with caution. Note that this
index only covers the years 1892-1924, and most of those years (with the exception of 18921897) are already soundexed by the LDS Church. See the separate section on this website
on searching NY arrivals for how to use that index.
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Helpful Hints for Successful Searching
Copyright 1998-2001 Maura Petzolt
All Rights Reserved
This information may not be copied or redistributed in any format without my prior written permission.
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