#31 - Ellis Island | April 17, 2020

10 Facts About Today

Here are 10 worldy facts about Ellis Island that you didn’t know, that you didn’t need to know:

1. Ellis island was was originally privately owned.
   1. Samuel Ellis
   2. Tried to sell in 1785, but no bites
   3. City leased it in 1794
   4. City bought it when he died
2. Ellis island was mostly man-made?
   1. The original island was smaller than the immigration inspection building that stands on it today.
   2. Land that was elevated during the construction of the subways was used to increase the size of Ellis island by 6 acres.
3. Only half of Ellis Island is in New York.
   1. The other half is in New Jersey.
   2. The side that is man-made is considered New Jersey.
   3. In reality though, its a federal island so the government pays to maintain it.
4. Ellis Island used to have a hospital on it that was considered to be the best in the world at the time.
   1. All its corners are rounded corners because, at the time, corners were thought to harbor disease.
5. In the 1950’s the government tried to sell Ellis Island. The winning bid was a company that pitched a “completely self-contained city of the future”.
   1. Hire famed Architect Frank Lloyd Wright
   2. Last commission that was accepted before his death.
6. Ellis Island use be where pirates would go to die
   1. It was an executioner island
   2. Pirates would get hanged
   3. The bodies would actually be displayed from posts or “gibbets”
7. The first people to immigrate through ellis island were 3 kids
   1. They weren’t accompanied by parents or any family members
   2. It was Annie Moore and her 11-7year old brothers
   3. They were from County Cork, Ireland
   4. There is a statue still there commemorating them
8. The Transatlantic ships carrying immigrants didn’t ever stop at Ellis Island
   1. They would stop in Manhattan, let off travelers, and then ferries would take the immigrants to Ellis Island to be inspected
9. During WWII it was used as a prison for suspected nazi-sypathisers
   1. They did almost the same thing during WWI since immigration started to taper off
   2. They held around 1,500 potential enemies of state there
10. Immigrants didn’t change their names at Ellis Island
    1. Some people say that when traveling through Ellis island, people with very ethnic sounding names would change them at Ellis island, but that's not true
    2. When being processed the Ellis Island crew would just use the names on the ships manifests
    3. Names changes either happened in the travelers home country or after being processed through ellis island