Between 1868 and 1914, more than one million European immigrants first touched American soil right here at this Locust Point pier. The North German Lloyd and Hamburg-America shipping lines operated regular service between German and Austro-Hungarian ports and Baltimore, and their passengers disembarked at Locust Point piers within sight of Fort McHenry. Unlike Ellis Island, which did not open until 1892, the Locust Point immigration facilities operated for decades before any formal federal processing existed.
The immigrants who came through here were overwhelmingly German, Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, Slovak, Lithuanian, and Italian — many of them were fleeing the religious restrictions, military conscription, and economic depression of central and eastern Europe. They arrived speaking dozens of languages, carrying whatever they could carry, and were met on the piers by the agents of ethnic community organizations, railroads seeking workers for the interior, and, inevitably, con men selling fake documents and bogus travel connections. Many stayed in Baltimore, building the ethnic neighborhoods — Little Italy, Highlandtown, the Polish corridor of Fells Point — that still give the city its character.
Many others transferred to trains at Camden Station and dispersed across the continent. The immigration pier was demolished long ago, but the neighborhood of Locust Point retains the rowhouse scale and ethnic character of those immigrant communities.