Why go
Look at the Main Building as both a working station and a rebuilding project. The first station opened in 1892 and burned five years later, destroying many earlier immigration records. The replacement opened in 1900 and now houses the immigration museum, making the building itself part of the story.
The full story
The first immigration station on Ellis Island opened on January 1, 1892. Built largely of wood, it served roughly 1.5 million immigrants before a fire destroyed it in June 1897. No deaths were reported, but the fire consumed many immigration records dating back to 1855. Arrivals were processed at the Barge Office while a new station was built. The present Main Building opened on December 17, 1900. Its red brick and limestone trim give it a French Renaissance Revival appearance, while its more durable construction reflected the lesson of the fire. As arrivals increased before World War I, even this large station strained to handle the crowds. The building’s scale is easiest to understand from the Registry Room and its circulation spaces: they were designed to move large numbers of people through medical and legal checks. Its present museum use lets visitors read that history in the rooms where it happened.