Tag Archives: Castle Garden

Let’s Talk About: Look Again at Castle Garden

by Donna Phillips

Before Ellis Island in New York harbor, there was Castle Garden. Let’s look again:

  • Castle Garden as immigrant station opened in 1855
  • Certainly there were immigrant arrivals prior to that year
  • What became Castle Garden was a military fort from 1808-1855
  • After Castle Garden closed as an immigrant station, it became an entertainment center

New York officials realized by 1819 that “immigration was anything but organized.” There were several proposals for a solution; that solution was to use Castle Garden. Remember it was first a military fort and then entertainment venue and did not become an immigrant arrival station until 1855. It opened on 3 August 1855. 

  • Roughly 2 out of every 3 immigrants to the U.S. between 1855 and 1890 (approximately 8.5 million people) passed through Castle Garden.
  • But the place was not really equipped to handle such crowds; “overcrowding and understaffing led to scenes of confusion and congestion that became infamous in their own right.” 
  • By the 1880s it was obvious that a new solution must be found.
  • After much verbal wrangling among New York politicians, the Federal Government had had enough and in February 1890 New York officials were told the news. 

Castle Garden officially closed its doors on 18 April 1890; in its final years, it processed 364,086 immigrants. By year’s end, the building was transferred back to the city. The Barge Office was used as the immigrant arrival center between 18 April 1890 and 31 Dec 1891 while construction on Ellis Island was complete. The new facility on Ellis Island began receiving immigrants on January 1, 1892. Over the next 62 years, more than 12 million immigrants would arrive in the U.S. via Ellis Island.
Where are the Castle Garden records?

  • Unfortunately, some of the CG records were lost in a fire that burned Ellis Island to the ground in 1897 but many still exist. 
  • Check with FamilySearch.org
  • Check with Ancestry.com

If you type: Castle Garden Immigration: A Genealogist’s Guide, by Katharine Andrew, offered free on the FamilyTree Magazine website, you’ll get all your Qs answered!

Let’s Talk About: Castle Clinton

by Donna Phillips

If you’ve been to Castle Garden you’ve been to Castle Clinton! This monument is a restored circular sandstone fort within Battery Park at the southern end of Manhattan in New York City. 

Castle Clinton stands near where Fort Amsterdam was built in 1626; this fort was demolished by 1790 after the Revolutionary War. As war was still on the horizon, a new fort on the site was deemed necessary. Originally known as West Battery, and constructed between 1808 and 1811, this fort never saw warfare and by 1822 the fort was ceded to the city by an act of Congress. The fort reopened as Castle Garden in 1824. 

Between 1824 and 1855, the structure has functioned as a beer garden, exhibition hall, theater and public aquarium. Jenny Lind gave her first U.S. performance here in 1850 with tickets costing the 2023 equivalent of over $8000. 

From 1855 to 1890, Castle Garden was the first American immigration station. More than 7.5 million people came to America here between 1855 and 1890. (The Ellis Island Immigration Station opened in 1892.)

According to the Wikipedia article, “many of Castle Garden’s original immigrant passenger records were stored at Ellis Island where they were destroyed in a fire in 1897.” That’s the sad news; the happy news is that the majority of immigrants processed at Castle Garden were from Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Scotland and Sweden. 

So did your immigrant ancestor come to America through Castle Clinton??? 

P.S. Wikipedia has a dandy long informational article on this place.