The immigrant experiance

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Immigration in the United States from 1870-1920

Ayala Cove with the Omaha in place to fumigate with steam. (angel island)

Immigration Station, circa 1918. Administration building in left foreground, Hospital in left background, Detention Barracks in mid-center, Julia Morgan-designed employee cottages at back, Perimeter Road on right. (angel island)

The Federal government intervened and constructed a new Federally-operated immigration station on Ellis Island. While the new immigration station on Ellis Island was under construction, the Barge Office at the Battery was used for the processing of immigrants. The new large structure on Ellis Island was built of "Georgia pine" with a slate roof and its doors opened on January 1, 1892. A fifteen year-old lass from Ireland named Annie Moore accompanied by her two brothers entered history and a new country as she was the very first immigrant to be processed at Ellis Island. Millions more were soon to follow.

(ellis island)

Registry Room (restored to 1918-1924): The historic Great Hall, once filled with new arrivals waiting to be inspected and registered by Immigration officers, now contains historic benches and reproduction inspector desks

Between 1918 and 1919, detained suspected enemy aliens were transferred from Ellis Island to other locations in order for the United States Navy with the Army Medical Department to take over the island complex for the duration of the war. During this time, regular inspection of arriving immigrants was conducted on board ship or at the docks. At the end of World War I, a big "Red Scare" spread across America and thousands of suspected alien radicals were interred at Ellis Island.

Ship manifest of A. Fletcher