The Fort was was deeded to New York City in 1823. The following summer a new restaurant and entertainment center opened at the site, renamed Castle Garden.
Opera singer Jenny Lind, the “Swedish Nightingale,” made her American debut here in 1850.
19855 – Castle Garden opened as an immigrant landing depot. The creation of Castle Garden, the official immigrant processing center in the nation, represented a country at a crossroads, signaling a change in American immigration policy, and in the ways through which immigrants became Americans.
With the Federal government taking control of immigration and the opening of Ellis Island, Castle Garden’s time as an immigration center ends. The building was remodeled once again and reopened as the New York City Aquarium 1896.
The New York City Aquarium was relocated to Coney Island in 1941.
Saved from demolition in 1946, the Castle was restored to its original design by the National Park Service. The site reopened in 1975 as Castle Clinton National Monument.