The design of the buildings at Ellis island is simple. in concept a ‘parti’ or central design. The stone architecture for the four principal buildings is solid, simple and elegant. The white stones interlined with the small black lines where brick meets brick give it a strong and magnificent look. It empowers the buildings stature and official look. Well placed red bricks finish the look.
The location is until recently used as a U.S.A. immigration station, due to a fire accident it is declared abandoned. BARK (Bureau on Anomaly Research & Knowledge) bought it up including the rights to clear more land and use the neighboring islands, meeting the governments specific demands for buying the statue of liberty island.
BARK started renovating and repurposing the buildings and secretly made an underground section, hosting HQ offices and laboratories, research facilites and medical treament facilities.
The building is to serve as a tourist attraction and also as a cover entrance for the agents of BARK, it also houses the HQ facilities and science department of B.A.R.K.
The base of the island is never changed, the wooden buildings have been replaced by stone buildings. The island is recently enlarged to 27 acres of land by landfill.
The part that was lost to the fire has been replaced.
there is an underground excavation done in the center of the left island down into a hard bedrock.
A granite mountain peak rises up to the surface. The top is flattened by humans and squared as a platform for the buildings and serves now as a base for the underground structure. The left section is an one level deep into the underbelly of Ellis Island.
1776
By the time of the American Revolution, the Island was owned by Samuel Ellis, a New York merchant and owner of a small tavern on the island catering to fisherman
1808
Samuel Ellis's heirs sold the island to New York State. The name Ellis Island stuck. Later in the year, the Federal Government bought Ellis Island for $10,000.
1812
Shortly before the War of 1812, a battery of 20 guns, a magazine and a barracks were constructed on the island.
1890
The States turned over control of immigration to the Federal Government. The U.S. Congress appropriated $75,000 to build the first Federal immigration station on Ellis Island. Artesian wells were dug, and landfill (from incoming ships' ballast and New York City subway tunnels) doubled the size of Ellis to over six acres. While the new immigration station was under construction, the Barge Office on the Battery on the tip of Manhattan was used for immigration reception. During 1891, there were 405,664 immigrants, or about 80% of the national total, that were processed at the Barge Office.
1892
The first Ellis Island Immigration Station was officially opened. The first immigrant to pass through Ellis was a "rosy-cheeked Irish girl," Annie Moore, a teenager from County Cork. She came with her two younger brothers to join their parents in New York City. That first day, three large ships were waiting to land, and 700 immigrants passed through Ellis Island. In the first year, nearly 450,000 immigrants passed through the Island.
1897
A fire of undisclosed origin, possibly faulty wiring, completely destroyed the Georgia pine structures on Ellis Island. No one died, but most of the immigration records dating from 1855 were destroyed. In five years, some 1.5 million immigrants had been processed. While a new, fireproof immigration station was being constructed on Ellis, processing was transferred back to the Barge Office.
1900
The main function of Ellis Island changed from that of an immigrant processing station, to a center of the assembly, detention, and deportation of aliens who had entered the U.S. illegally or had violated the terms of admittance. The buildings at Ellis Island began to fall into disuse and disrepair.
1903
B.A.R.K. organisation buys Ellis Island for $50,000 from the state of New York, also signing some special contracts to obtain the island and statue of liberty and begins rebuilding and repairing the buildings.
1902
BARK Agents begin their office in Ellis Island HQ.
There are a few buildings maintained for touristic purposes, they show the history of the Ellis Island and also the iconic statue: The Statue of Liberty.
Summer Camp 2020 Article
Original from Café Noir
Founding Date
1776 (original; wood),
1890(upgrade; stone),
1903 (repurposed)
Alternative Names
club, doghouse, the works
The fire of 1897
The 1897 fire was in fact an action of german secret operatives to hide their prescense, targets and numbers by burning the archives with liquid thermite. The fire backdraft was so intense that several of the foreign agents where found dead. Offical news reported a fire due to faulty wiring.
Tourist charade
There are (at least) two reasons to maintain the tourist charade:
it bring some money. (quite a sum) and in the crowd of tourists, agents can come and go -almost- without detection. The tourism section also covers any activity that otherwise might have been suspicious.
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