Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1900 — The First House. [ARTICLE]

The First House.

Some time ago the dead letter office in Washington received a foreign letter addressed to the “First House in America.” The chief clerk of the puzzle bureau sent the letter to the Federal barge office of New York on the theory that this would be the first house entered by a foreign immigrant landing in America. His theory proved correct; for, when*the letter was opened, it was found to contain h communication in Russian informing the immigration commissioner of the impending arrival of some Polish Jewesses who expected to be met at the barge office by tbeir relatives. “The first house in America” is not a bad description for the little gray stone building that stands at the tip end of New York, surmounted by a turret and flagstaff flying a faded specimen of Old Glory above the vertical stripes and stars of the custom hquse. This is where all immigrants admitted to New York first set foot on dry laud.—Collier’s Weekly