<P> The first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island was Annie Moore, a 17 - year - old girl from Cork, Ireland, who arrived on the ship Nevada on January 1, 1892 . She and her two brothers were coming to America to meet their parents, who had moved to New York two years prior . She received a greeting from officials and a $10 gold coin . It was the largest sum of money she had ever owned . </P> <P> The last person to pass through Ellis Island was a Norwegian merchant seaman by the name of Arne Peterssen in 1954 . </P> <P> The wooden structure built in 1892 to house the immigration station burned down after five years . The station's new Main Building, which now houses the Immigration Museum, was opened in 1900 . Architects Edward Lippincott Tilton and William Alciphron Boring received a gold medal at the 1900 Paris Exposition for the building's design and constructed the building at a cost of $1.5 million . The architecture competition was the second under the Tarsney Act, which had permitted private architects rather than government architects in the Treasury Department's Office of the Supervising Architect to design federal buildings . </P> <P> After the immigration station closed in November 1954, the buildings fell into disrepair and were abandoned . Attempts at redeveloping the site were unsuccessful until its landmark status was established . On October 15, 1965, Ellis Island was proclaimed a part of Statue of Liberty National Monument . It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966 . </P>

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