Irish Immigration to New York: Castle Garden - 1855 to 1892

More Irish lived in New York City than in Dublin by 1860, making it the largest Irish population in the world. By 1860, New York was home to 200,000 Immigrant Irish, making up almost 25% of the city's total population.  Most of these immigrants passed through Castle Gardens.

In 1824, the New York City government converted Fort Clinton, located in Battery Park, to an entertainment venue known as Castle Garden, which operated until 1855.  Beginning in 1855, Castle Garden served as an immigrant processing depot for 35 years until processing facilities were moved to Ellis Island in 1892.  More than 7.5 million people arrived in New York at Castle Garden between 1855 to 1890.  

It was surrounded by a 1,000-foot-long, 13 feet high, wooden fence.  The fence was intended to keep out unauthorized immigration agents.  Former residential outbuildings around old Fort Clinton became offices.  At the center of the fort was the waiting area known as the rotunda.  The immigrant registration depot included desks arranged around this waiting area, as well as restrooms flanking the main entrance.  The waiting area also had wooden benches. Various sources give a capacity of between 2,000 and 4,000 people.  An enclosed balcony was installed around the waiting area circa 1869.

Before being processed at Castle Garden, immigrants underwent medical inspections at the Marine Hospital on Staten Island, where ill immigrants were quarantined.  After passing their medical inspection, immigrants boarded a steamship, which traveled to a dock along the northern side of Castle Garden; the dock faced away from Battery Park, preventing immigrants from entering Manhattan before they had been processed. 

Immigrants were inspected a second time before entering the fort. Inside the depot, a New York state emigration clerk registered each immigrant and directed them to another desk, where a second clerk advised each immigrant about their destination. Each of the immigrants then received a bottle of bathwater and returned to the dock, where their baggage was collected.  The New York Central Railroad and the New York and Erie Railroad sold train tickets at Castle Garden as well.

The majority of immigrants processed at Castle Garden were from Ireland.  In 2005, The New York Times estimated that one-sixth of all Americans were descended from an immigrant who had passed through Castle Garden.

In 1864, to convince immigrants to enlist in the United States Armed Forces during the American Civil War, the County Bounty Committee erected a recruitment center next to Castle Garden.  This was the largest source of manpower for the New York regiments of the Irish Brigade.  During the Civil War The New York Times wrote that the surrounding Battery Park was "a haven for the 'runners' who approached innocent Irish and German newcomers, offering them nonexistent lodgings for their money.”

By the late 1880s, Castle Garden had become overcrowded and unhygienic, and there were numerous reports that Castle Garden officials were mistreating immigrants.   The Chicago Daily Tribune wrote that the structure was "a dilapidated rotunda surrounded by equally ramshackle structures for the housing of the strangers on these shores."  The federal government notified New York state officials in February 1890 that it would take over immigrant-processing duties at Castle Garden within sixty days.  Federal officials planned to construct a new immigrant-processing center at another location, ultimately selecting a site on Ellis Island.  Castle Garden closed on April 18, 1890.