Castle Clinton

Written by Theresa DeCicco for Place Matter and Professor Gwynneth Malins Fall 2019 NYU Local and Public History Course

The circular sandstone fort which currently stands in Battery Park was originally named the Southwest Battery upon completion in 1811. As tensions escalated between the young United States and European powers in the early nineteenth-century, the Southwest Battery was built to further improve fortifications around the city’s harborfront. Constructed on a rocky outcropping off the shoreline of southern Manhattan, the Southwest Battery was connected to Manhattan’s Battery by a wooden drawbridge. The fort, renamed Castle Clinton in 1817 after city Mayor and New York State Governor DeWitt Clinton, was decommissioned in 1822 as the garrison moved to Governor’s Island. The federal government ceded the property back to the city authorities, and in turn, the city government installed gas lamps around the surrounding area and leased off the Castle as a “place of resort.”

Opening to much fanfare, Castle Clinton was reintroduced to the public as Castle Garden on July 4, 1824. Castle Garden became the city’s preeminent public hall and entertainment space, as the Garden gained a long-standing reputation as a social and cultural gathering point for the city’s population through events, activities, and spectacle that occurred within its walls. Castle Garden welcomed visiting dignitaries and heads of states such as the American hero the Marquis de Lafayette in 1824. US Presidents Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, Millard Fillmore, and Hungarian political reformer Lajos Kossuth were also greeted at Castle Garden by massive crowds and overwhelming enthusiasm. In the 1820s through the 1840s, Castle Garden was considered one of the city’s most fashionable resorts as New Yorkers established boathouses and floating saltwater bathhouses around the Garden’s wooden drawbridge. The Garden additionally acted as an outdoor venue for concerts, operas, horse shows, and lectures. In 1842, Samuel Morse demonstrated sending telegraphic signals between Castle Garden and Castle Williams on Governor’s Island via a submerged two-mile copper wire in New York Harbor.

Through the 1820s and 1840s, many of New York City’s affluent families settled around the Battery and its adjacent neighborhood, so much so that Bowling Green was dubbed Nob’s Row. The proprietors of Castle Garden, French and Heiser, renewed their lease in 1843, and in a move to keep up appearances, sought to drastically improve the venue. Castle Garden was transformed into a theatre as a rotunda roof was added to the structure. In 1850, the renowned European singer Jenny Lind, known as the “Swedish Nightingale,” made her American debut at Castle Garden which led the theatre to be “packed to its utmost capacity.” Yet, Castle Garden’s days a beloved public performing venue dwindled as French and Heiser’s lease ended in 1854. During the mid-nineteenth century, New York City experienced an influx of immigration from European countries, particularly from Ireland and Germany. As the nation’s busiest port of entry, New York State developed the Board of Commissioners of Emigration to oversee immigrant entry into New York City. On April 13, 1855, the New York State legislature passed “An Act for the Protection of Immigrants, Second Class, Steerage, and Deck Passengers.” To provide a haven for new arrivals, the Commissioners of Emigration sought a physical location to process immigrants into the city. In May 1855, the Commissioners obtained the lease to Castle Garden and transformed the Garden into a state-run Emigrant Landing Depot.

On August 3, 1855, New York City’s premier location for spectacle and theatre, Castle Garden, reopened as the New York State Emigrant Landing Depot. In the months leading to the Garden’s transformation, backlash ensued. Men who held financial interest around Manhattan’s Battery, such as railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt and restaurateur Lorenzo Delmonico, obtain an injunction to halt further construction. The injunction overturned, schemes to stop the Garden’s conversion continued as a plan to develop a “Washington Monument,” a 600-foot structure which would replace Castle Garden, gained momentum for a brief period. A New York Times editorial piece from 1855, captured the adverse reaction of elite New Yorkers: “No more Operas, or Kossuth Receptions or Concerts- that is settled. Yesterday the Commissioners of Emigration took possession of these beautiful and very historical quarters… and hereafter the Garden will be used as a sort of depot, vulartie, pen, into which paupers, convicts and honest men and reputable of Europe shall be tunneled from shipboard through the city to their places of destination.” Despite the protests of those who feared the incoming immigrant population would bring disorder to downtown Manhattan, the state-run Castle Garden Emigrant Landing Depot welcomed over 8 million people to the United States from 1855 to 1890.

The Castle Garden Emigrant Landing Depot offered immigrants a decent reception into New York City, as the metropolis face an issue with sharks and runners who often took advantage of newcomers. Upon the opening of the Emigrant Landing Depot in 1855, Castle Garden was officially connected to Manhattan through landfill. Immigrants entered the Garden through a wharf attached to the back of the depot, once inside arrivals were ushered into the large rotunda room. The registration desk would often be the first stop for newcomers, greeted by clerks conversant in various languages, their names, the ship on which they arrived, and final destination were promptly recorded. Castle Garden provided immigrants with additional services such as bathing rooms, a money exchange, a Labor Bureau, luggage storage, and a means to obtain transportation to their final destination. Notable figures to have passed through Castle Garden are Erik Weisz (Harry Houdini), Joseph Pulitzer, Emma Goldman, and Nikola Tesla. Following the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the federal government assumed control over immigration policy in 1882. Cooperation between federal and state authorities rarely went smoothly, and the decision to halt operations at Castle Garden was made in 1890. Ellis Island opened as the newly established U.S. Immigration Center and would go on to welcome 12 million immigrants between 1892 and 1954.

On December 10, 1896, Castle Garden once again drew crowds to the Battery, as the structure reopened as the New York City Aquarium in 1896. The Garden’s facade altered by the famed architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, attracted over 30,000 visitors on its opening day. City planner, Robert Moses decidedly closed the aquarium in 1941, in order to begin construction on a bridge to connect the Battery to Brooklyn. Moses began demolition of the structures interior when the general public, civic leaders, and a coalition of historic and art societies railed to save Castle. The New York Times received repeated letters from concerned community members who fondly referred to the landmark as an “old friend worth preserving.” In an attempt to quiet public opposition, Moses surrounded the structure with a fence and stated there was nothing left to preserve of the former Castle. Upon official inspection of the site, it was discovered that Moses had falsified this statement. A bill signed by President Henry S. Tuman on April 29, 1949, allocated funds to the Castle for restoration, and by 1950 the site was designated a National Monument. Restored to its original 1811 construct by the National Park Service, Castle Clinton now serves as the official ticket center for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

The structure’s various repurposing throughout the years is a constant reflection of New York City and the downtown community’s growth and development. Throughout the change over time, Castle Clinton for most of its history remained a public social and cultural center and is currently one of the most visited National Park Service sites in the country. The gateway to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, contemporary symbols of New York City’s immigration culture and past, Castle Clinton’s past and present are connected as national and international visitors engage with the immigrant experience of generations past. For the duration of Castle Clinton’s varied history, the site has remained a public good, continuously welcoming those new and old to New York City today.