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Ellis Island, seen from Liberty Island by Linus Henning –

Top 10 Interesting Facts about Ellis Island

*Originally published by Ruth on April 2022 and Updated by Vanessa R on May 2023

Ellis Island is a federally owned island in New York Harbor that was the busiest immigrant inspection station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 million immigrants arriving at the Port of New York and New Jersey were processed there under federal law. Today, it is part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument and is accessible to the public only by ferry. The north side of the island is the site of the main building, now a national museum of immigration. The south side of the island, including the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, is open to the public only through guided tours.

In the 19th century, Ellis Island was the site of Fort Gibson and later became a naval magazine. The first inspection station opened in 1892 and was destroyed by fire in 1897. The second station opened in 1900 and housed facilities for medical quarantines and processing immigrants. After 1924, Ellis Island was used primarily as a detention center for migrants. During both World War I and World War II, its facilities were also used by the US military to detain prisoners of war. After the immigration station’s closure, the buildings languished for several years until they were partially reopened in 1976. The main building and adjacent structures were completely renovated in 1990.

Here are the top 10 Interesting Facts about Ellis Island.

1. Ellis Island was used for pirate hangings in the early 1800s

Long before it became a way station for people looking for a new beginning, Ellis Island鈥攏amed for its last private owner, Samuel Ellis鈥攚as known as a place where condemned prisoners met their end.

For most of the early 19th century, the island was used to hang convicted pirates, criminals, and mutinous sailors. It reverted to the name 鈥淓llis Island鈥� in the years after the last hanging in 1839 and later served as a Navy munitions depot before being repurposed as a federal immigration station.

2. Ellis Island wasn鈥檛 opened to the public until 1976

Ellis Island in the harbor of New York City by Bjoertvedt –

When the U.S. government tried to sell Ellis Island in the 1950s, would-be developers proposed everything from a drug rehab facility to a resort marina and even an experimental 鈥渃ity of the future鈥� designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

None of the schemes for private development got off the ground, however, and the 鈥済ateway to America鈥� spent the next 20 years in political limbo. The island was finally opened for tours in 1976, but plans for a historical museum or renovation didn鈥檛 come together until the 1980s.

The restored island was opened to the public in September 1990, and it now receives around 3 million visitors each year.

3. The first immigrants to arrive at Ellis Island were three unaccompanied minors

Ellis Island accepted its first new arrivals on New Year鈥檚 Day 1892 when the steamship Nevada arrived with 124 passengers from Europe. The first would-be immigrant to set foot on the island was Annie Moore, a teenager from County Cork, Ireland who had crossed the Atlantic with her 11 and 7-year-old brothers en route to reuniting with family in New York. 

Treasury Department officials and a Catholic chaplain were on hand to welcome Moore, and Ellis Island鈥檚 commissioner awarded her a $10 gold piece to mark the occasion. Today, a statue of Moore and her brothers is kept on display at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum.

4. Ellis Island eventually became more famous for deportations than immigration

Ellis Island by Rob Young –

Ellis Island鈥檚 role as a gateway for immigrants began to change in the early 1920s when a series of federal laws ended the open-door immigration policy and established quotas for the number of new arrivals to the United States. 

By 1925, the government had also shifted the inspection process from American ports to the U.S. consulates abroad, leaving Ellis Island to operate primarily as a detention center and deportation point for undesirable immigrants.

5. Ellis Island wasn鈥檛 the first place immigrants landed when they arrived in New York

            While Ellis Island was the official entry point for immigrants to the United States, it wasn鈥檛 the first piece of American soil they encountered. The waters surrounding the island were too shallow for transatlantic ships to navigate, so most docked and unloaded their passengers in Manhattan.

During the detour, American citizens and first and second-class passengers were allowed to enter the country after only a brief inspection, but steerage passengers were herded onto ferries and shuttled to Ellis Island for further processing. 

6. Immigrants didn鈥檛 have their names changed at Ellis island

Ellis Island, at the mouth of the Hudson River in New York Harbor, is the location of what was from 1892 until 1954 the main entry facility for immigrants entering the United States by Ad Meskens –

American cultural lore is rich with tales of immigrants鈥� ethnic-sounding names being Anglicized or shortened during their passage through Ellis Island, yet there is no evidence that such a practice ever took place.

Immigration officials merely checked the person鈥檚 identity against the manifests of the ships that brought them to America, and there was no policy advising them to forcibly alter names. Some immigrants voluntarily chose to change their names to help assimilate into American culture, but they did so before they left their home country or after they had gained admission to the United States.

7. New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia worked at Ellis Island

Before he became the first man to win three consecutive terms as mayor of New York, the fiery and reform-minded politician Fiorello LaGuardia spent three years on staff at Ellis Island between 1907 and 1910. 

The son of Italian immigrants, LaGuardia was fluent in Italian, Croatian, and Yiddish, and he served as one of the island鈥檚 many translators while attending NYU law school at night. LaGuardia would go on to represent many Ellis Island immigrants in deportation cases during his early years as an attorney.

8. Ellis Island was used as a detention facility during WWI and WWII

Ellis island air photo –

Shortly after the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, the government turned a suspicious eye toward all German-born, non-naturalized citizens residing within its borders.

Since immigration had tapered off during World War I, officials designated Ellis Island as one of the main holding centers for would-be enemies of the state, and some 1,500 people were eventually detained there. 

The island鈥檚 double life as a prison later continued during World War II, when it was used to house suspected Nazi sympathizers.

9. Immigrants were subject to physical and mental exams to ensure they were fit for admittance to Ellis Island

Upon arrival at Ellis Island, immigrants were ushered into a room called the Great Hall and paraded before a series of medical officers for physical inspection. Most were allowed to pass by in a matter of seconds, but those whom the doctors deemed physically or mentally deficient were marked with chalk and taken away for additional screening.

Questionable candidates were forced to submit to more detailed questioning and medical exams, and any signs of contagious disease, poor physique, feeblemindedness, or insanity could see an immigrant denied admittance on the grounds that they were likely to become a ward of the state. In later years, doctors at Ellis Island even devised puzzles and memory tests to ensure that certain immigrants were intelligent enough to find work.

10. Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty are both pieces of the Statue of Liberty National Monument

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced Ellis Island as a piece of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, which is presently kept up by the National Park Service. Ellis Island and Liberty Island are essential for a similar public park activity. Frederic Bartholdi actually picked Bedloe鈥檚 Island in the New York Harbor for its area. The landmark was devoted on October 28, 1886, as an image of opportunity and expectation for the American public. The Statue of Liberty was disclosed on that date, by President Grover Cleveland.

The Statue of Liberty was assigned as a National Monument in 1924 by President Calvin Coolidge. The Statue of Liberty currently lies on Liberty Island. Freedom Island was earlier known as Bedloe鈥檚 Island until 1956. The Statue of Liberty National Monument stays a colossal fascination for explorers everywhere in the world.

5 Famous Immigrants of Ellis Island

1. Irving Berlin

On May 11, 1888, in Temun, Siberia, the renowned composer and lyricist was born. Israel Baline was his first name at birth. He immigrated to America in 1893 along with his family. The family had left Siberia to avoid Russian persecution of Jews. His most well-known tunes include “God Bless America” and “White Christmas.”

2. Albert Einstein

A notable physicist of all time is Albert Einstein. He is another immigrant who escaped the persecution of the Jews and came to America. Germany’s Ulm city welcomed Einstein into the world on March 14, 1879. He left for America in December of 1932. A month later, Adolf Hitler was appointed Germany’s chancellor. Most famous for his theory of relativity, Einstein received a Nobel Prize in physics.

3. John Muir

, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

American conservationist John Muir is the most well-known. In Scotland’s Dunbar, he was born on April 21, 1838. In 1849, he immigrated with his family to America. The family of Muir travelled to Wisconsin after passing through Ellis Island. The family established a farm and home here.

Muir developed a deep affection for nature while he lived in the country. The Sierra Club was founded in 1892 with Muir’s assistance. Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, and Mt. Rainier were all declared national parks after Muir persuaded the American government to do so through his writings.

4. Joseph Pulitzer

Hungary’s Mako, where she was born on April 10th, 1847. The most influential journalist in the United States was Joseph Pulitzer. Pulitzer contributed to creating the structure of the contemporary newspaper as both an editor and a publisher. In 1864, he immigrated to the US. He had been enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War while residing in Budapest.

After the war, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he got interested in media and politics. He started the Columbia School of Journalism in 1912. The Pulitzer Prizes were created in his honour in 1917. These honours are given to journalists. The Statue of Liberty was kept in New York thanks in part to Pulitzer.

5. Annie Moore

, , via Wikimedia Commons

While some people might not be familiar with her name, Annie Moore is well-known for being the first immigrant to be processed at Ellis Island. The incident happened on January 1st, 1892.

Ireland’s County Cork is where Moore was born in 1877. On December 20, 1891, she and her two younger brothers departed Ireland. They arrived in America and joined their parents and older siblings who had immigrated to the nation four years earlier.