Ellis Island

Ellis Island is an island at the mouth of the Hudson River in New York Harbor, famous for being the main entry facility for immigrants coming into the United States. It was in operation from January 1, 1892 until November 12, 1954. Ellis Island is in the possession of the Federal government as a part of Statue of Liberty National Monument, however, and is under the jurisdiction of the US National Park Service.

Ellis Island was named after Samuel Ellis, a colonial New Yorker. The immigration station was designed by Edward Lippincott Tilton and William Boring. They both received a gold medal at the 1900 Paris Exposition for the station's design. It was one of the 30 processing stations of the Federal Government. A major processing station for third class immigrants, it processed 70% of all immigrants at that time.

Ellis Island
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ellis_island_air_photo.jpg
Author: National Park Service Digital Image Archives


Ellis Island is today part of Jersey City, New Jersey. According to the United States Census Bureau, the island, which was largely artificially created through the landfill process, has an official land area of 129,619 square meters, or 32 acres, more than 83 percent of which lies in the city of Jersey City. The natural portion of the island, lying in New York City, is 21,458 square meters (5.3 acres), and is completely surrounded by the artificially created portion. For New York State tax purposes it is assessed as Manhattan Block 1, Lot 201. Since 1998, it also has a tax number assigned by the state of New Jersey.

Ellis Island is today reachable by ferry from Liberty State Park in Jersey City, and from the southern tip of Manhattan. The immigration station is today a museum detailing the history of the island. It is legally in New York state, while the southern part of the island, which holds the unrestored infirmary and hospital buildings, is legally part of New Jersey.

Ellis Island Main Building
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liberty-ellis-island.jpg
Author: Derek Jensen


Ellis Island was the subject of a border dispute between New York State and New Jersey. It is on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. During the colonial period, New York had taken possession of it. In an agreement between the two states approved by U.S. Congress in 1834, New Jersey agreed to let New York continue to have exclusive jurisdiction over the island. However, the federal government expanded the island by landfill. Today nine-tenth of the area was manmade and did not exist at the time of the interstate agreement. New Jersey contended that the expanded area were part of New Jersey, since they were not part of the previous agreement. The state filed a suit to establish its jurisdiction, causing New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to remark that his father, an Italian who immigrated through Ellis Island, never intended to go to New Jersy.

The dispute eventually reached the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled in 1998 that New Jersey had jurisdiction over all portions of the island created after the original compact was approved. As a result of this ruling, some buildings fell into the territory of both states. New Jersey and New York eventually agreed to share claims to Ellis Island. However, it remains wholly a Federal property, and neither state took any responsibility for the maintenance, preservation, or improvement of any of the historic properties on the island.

The Statue of Liberty, often thought incorrectly to be on Ellis Island, is in on Liberty Island, half a mile to the south. The two islands are part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument.

Ellis Island Registry Room
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ellis_Island_Registry_Room.jpg
Author: Hu Totya

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Thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye. My hobby is to research information about places, and share the information with people on this website. I started this website on 5 January 2003, and since then, have written about over 20,000 places, mostly in Malaysia and Singapore.

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