This Month in History
Ellis Island Closes November 12, 1954
Ellis Island, the gateway to America, shuts its doors after processing more than 12 million immigrants since opening in 1892.
Immigrants to the United States on the deck of the S.S. Patricia on December 10, 1906.
Today, tens of millions of Americans can trace their roots through Ellis Island, located in New York Harbor off the New Jersey coast and named for merchant Samuel Ellis, who owned the land in the 1770s.
E
HISTORY CENTER
llis Island is a historical site that opefore that time, the processing of immigrants ned in 1892 as an immigration station, had been handled by individual states. a purpose it served Not all immigrants who sailed for more than 60 years uninto New York had to go throutil it closed in 1954. Located 40 percent of gh Ellis Island. First- and seat the mouth of Hudson all current U.S. cond-class passengers subRiver between New York citizens can mitted to a brief shipboard and New Jersey, Ellis Istrace at least inspection and then disembarland saw millions of newly one of their ked at the piers in New York or arrived immigrants pass ancestors to New Jersey, where they passed through its doors. In fact, Ellis Island. through customs. People in it has been estimated that third class, though, were transclose to 40 percent of all ported to current U.S. citizens can trace at least one of Ellis Island, where they their ancestors to Ellis Island. underwent medical and
O
n January 2, 1892, 15-year-old Annie Moore, from Ireland, became the first person to pass through the newly opened Ellis Island, which President Benjamin Harrison designated as America’s first federal immigration center in 1890. Be-
26 / The Center Spirit / November 2021
legal inspections to ensure they didn’t have a contagious disease or some condition that would make them a burden to the government. Only two percent of all Ellis Island seen from New York Harbor, 1903.
Ne the
