the site). In 2005, The New York Times estimated that one-sixth of all Americans were descended from an immigrant who had passed through Castle Garden. Conversion and operation 1850s and 1860s The New York state government's Board of Emigration Commissioners had been established in 1847 to operate medical facilities and a registration center for immigrants. Although the board had acquired the Marine Hospital on Staten Island soon after its establishment, the board had unsuccessfully attempted to open a registration center for several years. Prior to the establishment of the registration center, unethical booking agents frequently approached newly arrived immigrants, only to abscond with the immigrants' savings. The board took over Allen's lease of Castle Garden in May 1855 and made some modifications, leasing the fort for $8,000 annually (). Several local residents attempted to prevent the fort from being converted into an immigrant registration depot, claiming that the state government's lease was illegal and that the newly arrived immigrants would spread disease. A judge for the state's Superior Court ruled in June 1855 that work on the immigrant-processing depot could proceed. The Emigrant Landing Depot opened within the fort on August 1, 1855, and the depot began processing immigrants two days later. The identity of the first migrant processed at the fort is unknown. Of the first five ships to arrive at Castle Garden, English laborer Richard Richards was the first person on the manifest of the largest ship. Although the New York state government endorsed Castle Garden's conversion to an immigrant-processing depot, the New York City government opposed the move and accused the Emigration Commissioners of violating the terms of their lease. Many complaints about Castle Garden came from "runners" representing booking agents and boarding house operators, who could not intercept unwitting immigrants because of Castle Garden's strict policies. The New York state government's initial four-year lease of Castle Garden expired in 1859, and state officials renewed their lease annually for the next ten years. By then, state and city officials could not agree on who owned the depot. The city, state, and federal governments continued to fight over the depot's ownership through the 1870s. Although Castle Garden staff often mistreated immigrants, historian George J. Svejda wrote that the depot "was still the best place for immigrants upon their landing on America's shores". In 1864, to convince immigrants to enlist in the United States Armed Forces during the American