The Yiddish accent in particular rendered this place "Kestlegarden" and a lot of New Yorkers grew up not realizing that wasn't the actual name. People wrote home about their experiences in passing through Castle Garden and many of the later immigrants in those transition years didn't realize that Ellis Island was a different facility. Prior to immigrant processing, Castle Garden was called the South Battery, built during the War of 1812 on pilings in the harbor out from the shore. It was named Fort Clinton in 1817. The land around it was gradually filled in, and after it stopped being a fort a roof was put on the circular building with an open court yard and it became the theater and opera house Castle Garden. One claim to fame is that Jenny Lind made her first American appearance there. It isn't really that large of a space, but who knows - the acoustics might have been interesting. It became the New York State immigrant processing station Castle Garden in 1855 and the state built up the site - the extra girth included adding extra stories and out buildings. After it closed to immigrant processing it eventually was turned into an aquarium that operated until 1941, when the Brooklyn-Battery tunnel was constructed beneath it and I guess a large building full of water wasn't considered a great thing to leave in place. The National Park Service rescued and restored it to the original much smaller one story round building. Since it's there in the middle of Battery Park it's a popular meeting place, and it's where a lot of ticket and inspection activity happens for people wanting to head over to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. After 1890 when the Federal Government took over immigration processing, and until Ellis Island opened in 1892 everyone was processed at the battery at the old MIO - Marine Inspection Office, and that building is still there, standing next to the Staten Island Ferry terminal. Far more than anyone probably needed to know about Castle Garden, but I spent a few years working in the Harbor at Ellis and the Statue of Liberty and learned the history of the region.
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