25 Facts About Ellis Island, Gateway to the American Dream.

1. From 1892 to 1954 Ellis Island served as the United States’ largest immigration station, processing more than 12 million immigrants in just 62 years.

2. In its peak year of 1907, Ellis Island processed a total of 1,004,756 immigrants.

3. The island is predominantly located in Upper New York Bay in Jersey City, New Jersey. However, a small portion of the island is located in New York, and the island as a whole is sovereign to New York City, New York.

4. Local Indian tribes had first called Ellis Island "Kioshk" or Gull Island. Due to its rich and abundant oyster beds and plentiful and profitable shad runs, it was known as Oyster Island for many generations during the Dutch and English colonial periods.

5. By the time Samuel Ellis became the island's private owner in the 1770s, the island had been called Kioshk, Oyster, Dyre, Bucking and Anderson's Island. Far from its position as the most-traveled immigrant station in the world, Ellis Island developed from a sandy island that barely rose above the high tide mark into a hanging site for pirates, a harbor fort, and an ammunition and ordinance depot named Fort Gibson.

6. In 1808 the War Department established a 20-gun battery, magazine, and barracks and from 1808 until 1814 it was a federal arsenal. At the end of the War of 1812, Fort Gibson was built and the island remained a military post for nearly 80 years before it was selected to be a federal immigration station.

7. Ellis Island was originally just 3.3 acres. In order to house the immigration station, landfill from the NYC subway excavation was used to expand the landmass to 27.5 acres.

8. In its first year as an immigration station in 1892, Ellis Island processed more than 450,000 immigrants

9. On arrival to the immigration station, immigrants were inspected for any visible ailments. This rapid inspection was given the name ‘six second medical exam’. Those who failed the exam were marked with chalk and were sent for a full physical inspection. Those who passed went on to be processed in The Great Hall.

10. The first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island on January 1^st 1892 was a 15-year-old girl from Cork, Ireland, named Annie Moore, who arrived on the ship Nevada. The last person to pass through Ellis Island in 1954 was Arne Peterssen, a Norwegian merchant seaman.

11. There were some famous household names that passed through Ellis Island, including: Irving Berlin (1893), Bob Hope (1908), Bela Lugosi (1921), and Cary Grant (1920).

12. On June 15^th 1897 a fire ripped through the island, destroying the main building along with the majority of immigration records, dating back to 1855. A new fireproof building, designed by Edward Lippincott Tilton and William Alciphron Boring, was built in its place at a cost of $1.5 Million (roughly $45 million in 2015).

13. More than 3,000 would-be immigrants died while being held in Ellis Island’s hospital facilities.

14. The average processing time was 3-4 hours. The immigrants were asked 29 questions, including: name, occupation, and the amount of money they carried.

15. Only 2% of applicants were denied admission. The reasons were mostly due to disease, insanity, or a criminal background, giving Ellis Island the nicknames- ‘The Island of Tears’ and ‘Heartbreak Island’.

16. One third of the approved applicants remained in New York, while the rest scattered across the country.

17. It’s been estimated than around 40% of all U.S. citizens can trace at least part of their ancestry to Ellis Island.

18. There is a wooden column outside the registry office, called The Kissing Post. The Kissing Post is where relatives and friends greeted new arrivals, typically with tears, hugs, and kisses.

19. Due to new legislation in the 1920’s, mass immigration into New York was effectively ended. Operations at Ellis Island slowed down considerably.

20. During World War II, Ellis Island was used as a detainment center for a total of over 7,000 prisoners. In December 1941, Ellis Island held 279 Japanese, 248 Germans, and 81 Italians who were removed from the East Coast.

21. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson declared Ellis Island part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. Ellis Island was opened to the public for tours on a limited basis between 1976 and 1984.

22. Starting in 1984, Ellis Island underwent a major restoration, the largest historic restoration in U.S. history.

23. One of the last detainees on Ellis Island, was the Aceh separatist Hasan di Tiro who, while a student in New York in 1953, declared himself the "foreign minister" of the rebellious Darul Islam movement. Due to this action, he was immediately stripped of his Indonesian citizenship, causing him to be imprisoned for a few months on Ellis Island as "an illegal alien."

24. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, was the first non-U.S. citizen to be awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which pays homage to the immigrant experience and the contribution made to America by immigrants and their children. Other notable medalists include: Muhammad Ali, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Quincy Jones, and Donald Trump.

25. Ellis Island has a great feature for its modern day visitors, where you can digitally look through millions of arrival records to research family history.

Is home ownership still the American dream?

Generation after generation throughout modern United States history have considered owning a home a big part of the American dream.  A house in the suburbs was always a symbol of something far greater than just a place to live or even a good investment – it was aligned with the best characteristics of our society – opportunity, safety, stability, investing in a better future, a place to raise a blossoming family, and even hard work and education.  However the real estate bust and recession brought hard times.  Millions of Americans lost their homes and so many others lost equity in an investment they perceived as rock solid.  Some experts even have questioned the premise of owning a home as a good investment.  So have the attitudes of regular citizens shifted from the view of owning home as part of the American dream?  Not at all, by all indicators – the dream is alive and well. 

"The most tangible cornerstone that lies at the heart of the American Dream, at the heart of middle-class life, is the chance to own your own home.” Declared President Obama during a speech this summer.  It’s a sentiment that’s been echoed by every U.S. President – regardless of political affiliation and beliefs. 

The idea of home ownership as the American dream started post WWII.  As soldiers returned home in droves from overseas, intent on settling down, marrying their sweethearts, and starting families, the U.S. government had some crucial decisions to make.  Did they want the government to be in the housing business?  They did not, so instead they gave huge financial incentives to those who owned their own homes, incentivizing a private solution.  The economy boomed, the population exploded, and home ownership became that cornerstone of the American dream – a mark of a middle class lifestyle open to anyone.

But now, post recession and housing bust, people have been forced to adapt their expectations and goals with housing.  Is it better to rent?  Are the ups and down’s of a sometimes volatile market too risky to weather?  Does an increasingly mobile population even want to stay put in one address anymore?  Is housing still a good investment?

We went past the story of what housing means to the American dream and instead looked at hard numbers.  What we found was overwhelmingly encouraging. 

There are numbers that might make you think otherwise: 

A 2012 Pew survey found that 86 percent of Americans now believe the key to a middle class life is a secure job, and only 45% say the same about owning a home.

While back in 1991, 70% of respondents in a CNN/Time/Yankelovich Partners poll said home ownership was essential to membership in the middle class membership, while only about 50% said it was a white-collar job.  So there has been a cultural shift from home ownership as a bedrock of security toward good income from a stable job. 

In fact, since 2004 the overall rate of home ownership has declined from 69.2% to 65%.

But there is something essential to understand when interpreting data that tracks attitudes about home ownership and the American dream; there are those who own a home, and those who want to own a home, but can not, usually because of economic factors. 

With that in mind, we can attribute the recent recession, job losses, foreclosures, loss of equity, tightening credit standards as factors that have kept people away from home ownership who otherwise would love to buy.  The data backs this up. 

If we look at home ownership rates in the last 50+ years, we’ll see that numbers have always fluctuated based on economic and market conditions, but have consistently remained within the 62%-68% range, with a comfortable median around 64-65%. Thats remarkable consistency if you consider the changing times.

American home ownership rates:

1960    62.1%

1965    63.3%

1970    64.2%

1975    64.6%

1980    65.6%

1985    63.9%

1990    63.9%

1995    64.7%

2000    67.4%

2005    68.9%

2009    67.4%

The highest level of all time was in 2004 at 69%, but we’ve never cracked 70%.  So when we talk about housing declining 4% in the last 5 years, that’s off of an all-time high.

The lowest point of home ownership was in 1960 and 1961 in the 62% and change range, but it’s never dipped anywhere near 62% again.  

A recent survey states that 51% of people said the bust did not change their willingness to buy a home and an additional 27% said it actually made them more likely to do so.  That’s about 78% of the population who want to hold keys to their own front door.  Indeed, nearly two-thirds of people surveyed still believe purchasing a house is a safe investment.

A huge majority of those with that goal - 86% of those surveyed, list the income-tax benefits of owning a home as a big reason to buy.  Being able to choose a good school system for their kids, privacy, and being free to fix up their home as they wish were also important factors.  Perhaps those ideals have changed from the idea that one would live in their home 30 years, pay it off in one loan, and then enjoy a retirement mortgage-payment free.  These days, holding long enough to gain appreciation, tax deductions, and the alarmingly high cost of renting are more important.

A recent Gallup poll concluded:

• 25% don’t own now but plan on owning a home within the next 10 years.
• 11% don’t want to own a home and have no plans to buy, and
• 3% own a home but will sell and rent within the next 10 years.
• But an overwhelming 81% either own a home now and want to keep owning or want to buy within the next 10 years, numbers that have not dropped one iota over the decades.

Surprisingly, the American dream spreads across all age demographics, too. 

• When it comes to Millenials, 68% of Americans age 18-29 do not own a home but plan on buying one within the next 10 years. 
• 21% are already homeowners, which leaves only 11% that don’t own and don’t want to.

What about the Baby Boomers who are looking to retire or already in their golden years? 

• Of the 50-64 age group, 71% say they own and want to continue to own.
• For people 65 years and older, 69% say they will continue to own, while only 7% say they are planning to sell their home and rent somewhere, a very low number that refutes the perception of seniors chasing out their equity to rent hassle-free, downsize, or become snow birds.

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Certainly, looking at the big picture reveals that owning home is still the American dream, just updated to modern circumstances.