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Ellis Island officially opened as an immigration station on January 1, 1892. Seventeen-year-old Annie Moore, from County Cork, Ireland was the first immigrant to be processed at the new federal immigration depot.
In November 1954, the last detainee, a Norwegian merchant seaman, was released and Ellis Island officially closed. Beginning in 1984, Ellis Island underwent a $160 million renovation, the largest historic restoration project in U.S. history.