(Ed's Note:  Louis S. Alfano wrote and constructed this page concerning the immigration experience for New York.  The details also cover immigration after 1892 with the opening of Ellis Island, which I left in for general knowledge.  Our last two immigrant families, Utz and Paha, arrived in July and October of 1890 respectively and the government processed them through the Barge Office.  The remainder of the immigrant families and individuals who came through New York received processing at Castle Garden.)

The Immigration Experience

Immigrants didn't always enter New York through Ellis Island...

...Before 1855, there was no immigrant processing center. The shipping company presented a passenger list to the Collector of Customs, and the immigrants made whatever Customs declaration was necessary and went on their way.

...From August 1, 1855 through April 18, 1890 they came through Castle Garden (also known as Castle Clinton). The State of New York opened the very first examining and processing center for immigrants on an island off the southwest tip of Manhattan (Castle Garden). Immigration remained purely an affair of State, not federal, government until 1882. The court decision affirming Congressional supremacy over immigration (under the commerce clause) came down in 1875. But Congress did not act until passing the Immigration Act of 1882, which authorized the Treasury Secretary to contract with the states for enforcement of that law.

...From 1882 the reception of immigrants was handled as a joint State/Federal system. The Secretary of the Treasury signed a contract with the New York State Commissioners of Emigration to continue its services at Castle Garden. On April 1, 1890, the Secretary terminated the contract and on April 18, 1890, the Treasury Department assumed total control of immigration at the Port of New York. The New York State authorities refused to allow the federal government to use the Castle Garden facilities.

...On April 19, 1890 the US set up a temporary center in the old Barge Office at the foot of Whitehall Street near the Battery at the southeast end of Manhattan.

...The Office of Superintendent of Immigration of the Department of the Treasury was established by an Act of Congress of March 3, 1891, and was designated as a bureau in 1895 with responsibility for administering the alien contract-labor laws. This agency eventually became the Immigration and Naturalization Service, under the Department of Justice, through February 28, 2003.

..Ellis Island opened on January 1, 1892.

...On June 13, 1897 the original wooden structure burned to the ground. All the administrative records for Castle Garden for the period 1855-1890 and most of the records for the Barge Office and Ellis facilities were lost. Ellis Island's entire collection of state and federal lists were stored there and burned (even the underground record vault burned!). Fortunately, copies of the passenger lists were held by the Customs Collector and abstracts were held in Washington, DC. The Customs lists did not have as much information about passengers as did the Immigration lists, and the fire is the reason that the New York Immigration passenger lists begin with arrivals on June 16, 1897, instead of with 1891 arrivals.

...From June 14, 1897 through December 16, 1900 The Barge Office was reactivated and used until the new Ellis Island facility opened. 

...The Ellis Island Immigration Station was rebuilt and reopened on December 17, 1900, and immigrants came through Ellis Island until 1924.

...After July 1924, only those immigrants held for hearings physically "went" through Ellis Island. The vast majority were processed on board and did not step foot on the island. Otherwise it was an administrative and detention facility from 1924-1954, with other uses during WW II. All the immigrants' records were filed on the island until 1943, when the NY Immigration District Office moved to Manhattan. After 1943, then, not even the manifests went to Ellis Island.

The Table of Contents can be reached with this link.