Where the Immigration Inspectors Dined

New York City, 

1904-1905 

The immigration station on Ellis Island reopened in 1900 after a fire destroyed the original complex three years earlier. By 1902, “Kindness and Consideration” signs were posted throughout the halls, reminding immigration inspectors, social workers, and medical staff to treat the newcomers with empathy and respect. From 1900 to 1918, ten million people passed through Ellis Island. Unlike the 19th century, when most of the immigrants hailed from Northern and Western Europe, the early 20th century saw a massive surge from Eastern Europe, Czarist Russia, and Southern Italy. Menus from annual employee outings in 1904 and 1905 reflect the cuisines of these newer arrivals, an irony given that some staff members opposed the immigration policies of the time. The pair of menus brings to mind the phrase “unwitting historical evidence,” sometimes used to describe ephemera.

In 1904, eighteen inspectors dined at the Café Boulevard on Second Avenue at East 10th Street in New York City. This Hungarian restaurant featured an orchestra, a red marble dining room, and a circular staircase that “seemed to float in air,” according to the New York Times. Theodore Roosevelt was said to have been a regular customer at this fashionable restaurant. A 1903 guidebook, Where and How to Dine in New York, praised its paprika chicken, a signature dish that appears on this set menu. The names of the attendees are listed on the back of the card.

The following year, the inspectors attended a three-act musical comedy titled “Fontana” at the Lyric Theatre on West 42nd Street. Later that evening, they dined at Moretti, an Italian restaurant on West 35th Street near Sixth Avenue. The use of quotation marks around the restaurant’s name may allude to the recent retirement of its founder, Stefano Moretti, who returned to Italy in 1903 after operating his eponymous restaurant for over forty years. The fixed price dinner, which features the house pasta dish, would have cost about 65 cents.

The 1905 guest list reveals that eleven inspectors were returning attendees from the previous year. Among them was Luther C. Steward, likely the highest-ranking federal official in the group. He later became acting commissioner of the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay upon its opening in 1910. Steward earned a reputation as a compassionate professional and filed reports criticizing the unsanitary conditions on Angel Island. In stark contrast was Frank H. Ainsworth, the second name on the list. In 1904, he authored a report titled “Burdens of Recent Immigration” for the Immigration Restriction League, a nativist group that lobbied for literacy tests to curb immigration. Ainsworth was also transferred to Angel Island, where he actively worked to block South Asian immigration. His career ended ignominiously around 1915, when he was dismissed for theft and official misconduct.