Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears

Ellis Island, located just south of Manhattan, was at one time the main entry facility for immigrants entering the United States from January 1, 1892 until November 12, 1954. During this years more than twelve million people came through the island on their way into the United States.
The Ellis Island Immigrant Station was designed by architects Edward Lippincott Tilton and William Boring. They received a gold medal at the 1900 Paris Exposition for the building's design.

Ellis Island was the first stop for most immigrants from Europe.
Those with visible health problems or diseases were sent home or held in the island's hospital facilities for long periods of time. About 2 percent were denied admission to the U.S. and sent back to their countries of origin for reasons such as chronic contagious disease, criminal background, or insanity.

Today Ellis Island house is a museum. The Statue of Liberty, sometimes thought to be on Ellis Island because of its symbolism as a welcome to immigrants, is actually on Liberty Island, which is about 1/2 mile to the South.

Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears
On the first day of January
Eighteen Ninety-two
They Opened Ellis Island
And they let the people through.
And the first to cross the threshold
Of that Isle of hope and tears,
Was Annie Moore from Ireland
Who was only fifteen years.

CHORUS
Isle of hope, Isle of tears,
Isle of freedom, Isle of fears,
But it's not the Isle you left behind...
That Isle of hunger, Isle of pain,
Isle you'll never see again
But the Isle of home
Is always on your mind.

In her little bag she carried
All her past and history,
And her dreams for the future
In the land of liberty.
And courage is the passport
When your old world disappears
Cause there's no future in the past
When you're fifteen years.

CHORUS

When they closed down Ellis Island
In Nineteen Forty-three,
Seventeen million people
Had come there for sanctuary.
And in springtime when I came here
And stepped onto its piers,
I thought of how it must have been
When you're only fifteen years.

CHORUS