City Life

Ellis Island

Ellis Island has not always represented a place of welcoming freedom to represent America. It was just a three acre island in the harbor of New York, barley visible at high tide. It was named Oyster Island by the early Dutch settler and then in 1765 called Gibbet Island. In the late 1700’s a man named Samuel Ellis bought and finally owned the bank of the land which he built a tavern on. Once Samuel passed away his family sold the plot of land to the New York City subway lines. This helped bring Ellis Island to the size of 27.5 acres as it stands today. This was made by two adjoining artificial islands added onto the the original three acres. A new beginning was coming toward Ellis Island's way. Once the Government heard about this new land on the bank of New York they agreed to reopen the station under the condition that the next building built would be fireproof. In 1887 the original immigration station burned down after five years of it being open and they did not want to take the chance of having another accident.

Immigrants began to poor into this small little island being carried in on steamships. Most of the immigrants came from North Europe and in the the later decades Eastern and Southern Europeans began to come in. Most of the people carried on the ships had first and second class tickets with the exception of a few known as “steerage” or third class tickets. As soon as the arrived the many inspections, tests, and questions began.

All of the immigrants were immediately brought into the Great Hall and checked for any speech problems, eye problems, mental issues, and diseases. The doctors would have about nine seconds to check each person who came through giving them marks with calk on their clothing. Most of the time the doctors would draw an “X” on the immigrant if the saw any of these problems occurring. Most of the clever immigrants would wipe off the chalk or flipped over the clothing once they realized what it meant. Those who were ill they would either ship them back or nurse them back to health. Checking of the luggage was the next point in these peoples lives and this greatly scared those who spoke a different language because they could not understand why they were taking their belongings from them. This brought a lot of confusion and fear into the already so hard procedures. Not only did they have go through all of that but they also had to take intelligence tests which were not so hard to fail.

There were many broken hearts and dashed dreams every single time a ship came through yet there were also many joyful hearts crying with tears of joy. Those with the crushed dreams were either sent back home or had to watch their loved ones be sent back home. Imagine a mother having to go into the United States living her ten year old daughter to be shipped back having to fin for herself. That is an example of the kind of things that actually did happen during this time. Only a 30% of the people who came through each time were allowed to stay in the states. This shows how many were present with illnesses or no education in these foreign countries.

Immigrant processing was transferred over seas consulates in 1924 leaving Ellis Island with very few immigrants coming through. Its only use was for emergency need such as housing war refugees and training the Coast Guard service men during WWII. Ellis Island had been a place used by armed forces as well in WWI. The reason not as many immigrants were coming was because this made it much harder for immigrants to get through to the United States than before. In 1954 the building was closed and left there until in the late 1980’s they began restoring it into a museum and it was opened in 1990. It was going to be sold including 35 buildings, 2 war tanks, thousands of feat of chain link fencing, and a ferry. Then in 1965 President Johnson declared the Statue of Liberty apart of Ellis Island. A private funder gave $160 million to the Statue of Liberty and the Ellis Island Foundation.

Ellis Island made the impact as to where there are two million visitors per year come through to look at this historical landmark. It still stays in the hearts of people as a symbol of a great life and a new journey that is ahead which was the immigrant process. It represents freedom and new opportunities and has changed America in a whole new way. Ellis Island is a place that We as a nation should be proud of and it is important to see what a long way it has come from a 3 acre piece of land, to an immigration station, to now a place people love to visit and a way to enter into the United States with much improvements than before.