Castle Garden, at the tip of Manhattan, was the landing point for emigrants coming into New York until 1890 when the immigrant facility at Ellis Island opened. This drawing from an unidentified 19th century magazine depicts Mormon immigrants who have landed and are waiting to be processed to continue their journey.
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UPDATE: Keepa’ninny Jim Wallmann has traced this image to its origin: “It is in volume 2, p. 289, of George Augustus Sala, America Revisited: From the Bay of New York to the Gulf of Mexico, and from Lake Michigan to the Pacific (London: Vizetelly & Co., 1882). Here’s a link to the page. It looks like this book went through numerous editions, some of which have also been digitized, so I suppose the drawing could be from a later edition. You also see that the author spent many pages on the Mormons.”
Haven’t I often said that Keepa readers are the best in the bloggernacle, who add enormous value to posts? Thank you, Jim.
Thank you, Ardis and Jim! My Great Grandfather Vaughn as a babe-in-arms came through Castle Garden on a Mormon Immigrant ship in the 1880s!
FWIW, I think this image makes Castle Garden look larger than it was. The fort (it was originally a fort and today is known as Castle Clinton) is, I think, about 100 ft in diameter (it is circular).
Visiting it now it really doesn’t seem like it would hold many people at once.
Before it was an immigration station the fort had already had a long and interesting history. In addition to its military use, it also served at one time as a theatre and once hosted the famous 19th-century singer Jenny Lind. If memory serves it was also a kind of menagerie or aquarium.
Not to nitpick, but I just pulled up a view of Castle Clinton (as it was known both before and after its repurposing as a concert hall, immigration station, and aquarium) on Google Maps, and, as best I can tell using the scale on that site, the interior diameter is approximately 160 feet. Over the years there have been various structures built within the stone outer structure, though, and during the time it was used as the immigration station, it had a roof over the central courtyard.