Ellis Island Historic District

As the flow of eastern and southern European immigration to the United States surged in the late nineteenth century, New York's modest processing center at Castle Clinton in the Battery became inadequate. In 1892, the federal government assumed control of immigration and relocated to the site of Fort Gibson on Ellis Island. The massive complex that stands today was begun in 1897, after the original station was destroyed by fire.

The district, situated in New York Harbor, encompasses the Ellis Island Federal Immigration Station. Efficient control of immigration procedures dictated Ellis Island's design and architecture. The complex of some thirty interconnected structures, built between the 1890s and the 1930s, includes major portions designed in the monumental Beaux Arts style by the firm of Boring & Tilton, under the supervision of James Knox Taylor. Of note is the imposing brick and stone Main Building, which houses the registry room. The structures rest on a largely artificial, twenty-seven-and-one-half acre, E-shaped island, which was created solely to accommodate the immigration station. The island is composed of three land masses: the original island on which the Main Building sits, and two man-made islands (now connected) made of subway tunnel fill, which support medical, administrative and dormitory buildings.

Prior to the restrictive Immigration Act of 1924, Ellis Island processed approximately 12 million steerage-class (lower than third class) immigrants. Today, their descendants represent more than one-third of all Americans. Although immigration declined markedly after 1924, Ellis Island served an array of governmental functions until 1954. It was made part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965, although it remained abandoned until the 1980s, when the Statue of Liberty centennial piqued interest in the island. In 1990, the National Park Service renovated and reopened the Main Building as the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, while the other island structures remain in ruins. In 1998, New Jersey was given ownership of most of the island, based on the state's 1834 agreement with New York. ©2014