ellis island closed as an immigration station on november 12, 1954.
ellis island closed as an immigration station on november 12, 1954.
when did ellis island close as an immigration station?
november 12 , 1954
by 1947, shortly after the end of world war ii, there were proposals to close ellis island due to the massive expenses needed for the upkeep of a relatively small detention center. the hospital was closed in 1950-1951 by the united states public health service, and by the early 1950s, there were only 30 to 40 detainees left on the island. the island's closure was announced in mid-1954, when the federal government announced that it would construct a replacement facility on manhattan. ellis island closed on november 12, 1954, with the departure of its last detainee, norwegian merchant seaman arne peterssen. at the time, it was estimated that the government would save $900,000 a year from closing the island. the ferryboat "ellis island", which had operated since 1904, stopped operating two weeks later.
ellis island
the army had unsuccessfully attempted to use ellis island "for the convalescence for immigrants" as early as 1847. across new york harbor, castle clinton had been used as an immigration station since 1855, processing more than eight million immigrants during that time. the individual states had their own varying immigration laws until 1875, but the federal government regarded castle clinton as having "varied charges of mismanagement, abuse of immigrants, and evasion of the laws", and as such, wanted it to be completely replaced. the federal government assumed control of immigration in early 1890 and commissioned a study to determine the best place for the new immigration station in new york harbor. among members of the united states congress, there were disputes about whether to build the station on ellis, governors, or liberty islands. initially, liberty island was selected as the site for the immigration station, but due to opposition for immigration stations on both liberty and governors islands, the committee eventually decided to build the station on ellis island. since castle clinton's lease was about to expire, congress approved a bill to build an immigration station on ellis island.
ellis island