Clinton Castle

The Southwest Battery was built on the southern tip of Manhattan Island between 1808 and 1811. In 1817, it changed its name to Castle Clinton in honor of DeWitt Clinton, mayor of New York. In the summer of 1824, a restaurant and entertainment center opened here and it was also used as an opera house and theater until 1854. In 1855, New York State used it as the immigration office for the more than eight million people who enter the United States through Castle Garden, until it closed in 1890s.