the first immigrants came through ellis island in the early 18th century.
when did the first immigrants come through ellis island?
early 18th century
the station opened on january 1, 1892, and its first immigrant was annie moore, a 17-year-old girl from cork, ireland, who was traveling with her two brothers to meet their parents in the u.s. on the first day, almost 700 immigrants passed over the docks. over the next year, over 400,000 immigrants were processed at the station. the processing procedure included a series of medical and mental inspection lines, and through this process, some 1% of potential immigrants were deported. additional building improvements took place throughout the mid-1890s, and ellis island was expanded to by 1896. the last improvements, which entailed the installation of underwater telephone and telegraph cables to governors island, were completed in early june 1897. on june 15, 1897, the wooden structures on ellis island were razed in a fire of unknown origin, possibly caused by faulty wiring. no one died, but the wooden buildings had burned down within two and a half hours, and all of the original immigration records from 1855 were ruined. over five years of operation, the station had processed 1.5 million immigrants.
ellis island
immigration commissioner william williams made substantial changes to ellis island's operations, and during his tenure from 1902-1905 and 1909-1913, ellis island processed its peak number of immigrants. williams also made changes to the island's appearance, adding plants and grading paths upon the once-barren landscape of ellis island. under williams's supervision, a third island was built to accommodate a proposed contagious-diseases ward, separated from existing facilities by of water. island 3, as it was called, was located to the south of island 2 and separated from that island by a now-infilled ferry basin. the government bought the underwater area for island 3 from new jersey in 1904, and a contract was awarded in april 1905. the islands were all connected via a cribwalk on their western sides (later covered with wood canopy), giving ellis island an overall "e"-shape. upon the completion of island 3 in 1906, ellis island covered . a baggage and dormitory building was completed , and alterations were made to the registry building and dormitories as well, but even this was insufficient to accommodate the high volume of immigrants. in 1911, williams alleged that congress had allocated too little for improvements to ellis island, even though the improvement budget that year was $868,000.
ellis island