Ellis Island
Ellis Island is part of the Tentative list of United States of America in order to qualify for inclusion in the World Heritage List.
Ellis Island is a United States immigration station in New York Harbor that supported the Great Atlantic Migration, a voluntary mass migration of millions of people mostly from Europe to the Americas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A majority of the migrants traveled to the United States, and about 70% of those who arrived in the United States processed through the immigration facilities at Ellis Island. The island maintains buildings that supported the processing and care of both healthy and sick or injured immigrants.
Map of Ellis Island
Load mapThe coordinates shown for all tentative sites were produced as a community effort. They are not official and may change on inscription.
Community Reviews
Carlo Sarion
Philippines/New Zealand - 23-Mar-25 -
I visited Ellis Island along with the Statue of Liberty on a fine day in Dec 2024. I felt that it was timely to write a review of Ellis Island, given the current administration's stance on immigration, and I also think this site deserves a place on the World Heritage list.
Voluntary immigration
To my knowledge, UNESCO has not done a specific thematic study exclusively dedicated to potential World Heritage Sites associated with voluntary and large-scale immigration. In this context, voluntary immigration involved immigrants who sought better economic opportunities, escaped persecution, or wanted to reunite with family.
The island is known for its historical significance as the primary immigration station for the United States from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century. If there were such a study, Ellis Island would definitely banner the thematic study alongside the Statue of Liberty. If the US were to nominate Ellis Island to the World Heritage list, including Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay (as Kyle suggests) could strengthen the case for the site. Here's an article that nicely compares Ellis Island and Angel Island. Ellis Island and Angel Island also remind me of Pier 21 in Halifax, Canada, which served roughly the same purpose as Ellis Island.
The island
We hopped on the ferry after visiting the Statue of Liberty in the morning. We docked right in front of the Museum of Immigration, housed in the former main building on the island’s northern side. This was where hopeful immigrants were first processed upon arrival. As we had done at Monticello, Mount Vernon, and the Statue of Liberty, we began our visit with an introductory film for an overview of the history and significance of the place. Even after reading about the site in detail, I found watching the introductory film especially helpful, definitely because of the visuals, which brought the events to life and made the story feel more visceral.
We took the self-guided audio tour to explore the museum. Panels, exhibits, and walls have numbers that you could enter into the headset controller for narrated explanations. After spending some time in the main hall, we moved into the rooms that told the stories of the immigrants' experiences in the facility. Different rooms marked different steps immigrants underwent as they were assessed for their mental, physical, and a bit of financial and 'legal' fitness. There were so many fascinating and rather overwhelming stories told--some joyful, others heartbreaking. I could still remember the stories of families being separated, brothers and friends outsmarting immigration officers, and those who, after passing their assessments, seemed to have become uncertain about what lay ahead at their final destinations. There was also the Family History Centre where descendants of immigrants could learn about their ancestry. It's pretty cool that the previous reviewers found connections to Ellis Island!
After the tour, we went straight back to the dockyard to take the arriving ferry--only to miss it and wait for another 30 minutes. It was quite a big crowd so we didn't try to leave the queue. From what I know, only a few parts of the island are readily accessible to the public: the museum and the grounds on the northern side of the island, including the remains of Fort Gibson with the Wall of Honour. If you would like to visit the southern side of the island, you'd have to book the Hard Hat Tour.
The Hard Hat Tour gives you a 90-minute tour of the hospital buildings on the southern side of the island. We were not able to do this, but I'd make sure I'll be able to do this when I revisit New York (probably once the current term of government ends). I bet this would give visitors a bit more context to the experiences of the immigrants at the time, especially those who were sent for quarantine.
New York or New Jersey?
If you check Google Maps, you'd notice that Ellis Island is shared by both New York and New Jersey. The boundary line appears oddly drawn, with most (not all!) of the main building falling under New York's jurisdiction, while the rest of the island belongs to New Jersey. You can read more about the 1998 Supreme Court ruling that settled this jurisdictional dispute here.
Ilya Burlak
Ellis Island has been an entry point for over 12 million immigrants to the United States over the course of 60-plus years. The descendants of those immigrants nowadays make over 40% of the population of the USA. My wife's family name can be found on the Wall of Honor on the island.
Ellis Island can only be visited on a combined ticket together with the Statue of Liberty, and quite a lot of people give it the short shrift, spending the bulk of their time on Liberty Island. Those who decide to budget time for Ellis Island quickly realize that even a few hours may not be enough for seeing and learning all there is to see and learn. The audio guide - included in the ticket price - has over 120 hours of narration with nearly 2000 stops across half a dozen exhibitions and general areas. I suggest budgeting at least 3 hours, which will allow you to take a look at all major aspects of the site and explore one or two areas in depth. It is not about visual impact so much - although the Great Hall is definitely visually impressive - but rather about myriad of details and circumstances that featured in the processing of arrivals from all over the world. It is a fascinating experience for any student of history or anyone with their own history of immigration, although I can understand how someone with no emotional connection to this topic might not find anything exceedingly impressive here.
Given that Ellis Island can only be visited on that combined ticket, it seems a bit odd that one day the island and the statue may constitute two individual WH sites. In addition to proximity to each other, the two are emotionally intertwined, as Lady Liberty greeted the arrivals in the harbor, heralding the start of their new lives, before they found themselves deposited at the processing center on Ellis Island. I will not be surprised if Ellis Island is eventually enshrined as an extension of the existing Statue of Liberty WH property. From where I stand, it is clearly worth the recognition.
Read more from Ilya Burlak here.
Kyle Magnuson
California - United States of America - 25-Apr-17 -
Most visitors will visit Ellis Island as part of their ferry trip to the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately, for many visitors it seems like Ellis Island is an afterthought. However, for the countless Americans who had family arrive to the United States between 1892 - 1954, Ellis Island is an important pilgrimage. In fact, 12 million immigrants entered the United States through Ellis Island.
My visit was on an overcast day, with sprinkling rain, March 2015. I was excited to see the island and immediately made my way to the museum, which provides a window into immigration at the turn of the 20th century, it is much different today in 2017! I would love to tour the Hospital Complex, which is largely in disrepair, though restoration work is in the long term plans.
My Great-Grandfather immigrated to the United States and was processed at Ellis Island March 12th, 1909. He travelled from his home in Öland Island (just North of the WHS), Sweden to Liverpool, England. From there the ship (Mauretania) took him across the Atlantic to Ellis Island. He was 21 years old. My Great-Grandmother (young unmarried) arrived a year later and serendipitously met my Great-Grandfather in Chicago.
Thinking back, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island both stand out as a worthwhile trip, which has special meaning for many Americans and the families of immigrants that remained. As world heritage, I feel the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island have enough difference in criteria to merit separate status.
Yet, there is one truth that makes me hesitate to fully support inscription for Ellis Island alone. In San Francisco Bay there is the Angel Island Immigration Station (1910-1940). The immigrants, primarily from East and South Asia that arrived in San Francisco had a vastly different experience than the immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island. Detentions often lasted for weeks or months, inspections for disease were invasive and degrading, and the rejection rate was high. With the context of Anti-Chinese immigration laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, which blocked Chinese immigrants exclusively for 60 years, an Ellis Island inscription would affirm one narrative of American immigration, while ignoring the other by omission. Therefore, my position would be a joint nomination or none at all.
Read more from Kyle Magnuson here.
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Site Info
- Full Name
- Ellis Island
- Country
- United States of America
- Added
- 2017
- Type
- Cultural
- Categories
- Human activity - Transport and Trade
- Link
- By ID
Site History
2017 Added to Tentative List
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199 Community Members have visited.