69th Regiment Armory
The 69th Regiment Armory is a historic armory for the U.S. Army National Guard at 68 Lexington Avenue, between East 25th and 26th Streets, in the Rose Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, United States. Completed in 1906, the armory was designed by the firm of Hunt & Hunt in the Beaux-Arts style. The building is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark.
The 69th Regiment Armory was the first armory built in New York City not modeled on a medieval fortress. The building is divided into two parts. The drill shed to the west, in the middle of the block, has a brick facade with limestone trim, as well as a barrel vault. The administration building to the east is three stories high, with a brick-and-limestone facade, a large arch facing Lexington Avenue, and a double-height mansard roof; there are various offices and other rooms inside.
As early as 1886, the 69th Regiment had sought permission to erect a new armory. The site between 25th and 26th Street was not decided upon until 1899; the building began construction in 1904 and formally opened on October 13, 1906. The Armory was the site of the 1913 Armory Show, in which modern art was first publicly presented in the United States. The drill hall has been used for sporting and entertainment events, such as basketball games., it is still used as the headquarters of the New York Army National Guard's 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment, as well as for special events.
Site
The armory is at 68 Lexington Avenue between 25th and 26th Streets in the Rose Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The surrounding area is considered to be within either the NoMad or Rose Hill neighborhood. The lot measures and occupies almost the entire city block between Park Avenue South to the west, 26th Street to the north, Lexington Avenue to the east, and 25th Street to the south. The site measures approximately along 26th Street, along Lexington Avenue, and along 25th Street. The armory abuts the site of the writer Herman Melville's former house at 104 East 26th Street.Architecture
Designed by the firm of Hunt & Hunt, the 69th Regiment Armory was the first armory built in New York City to not be modeled on a medieval fortress; instead, it was designed in the Beaux-Arts style. The James D. Murphy Company was the general contractor and masonry contractor for the project. Other contractors involved in the armory's construction included ironwork contractor Milliken Brothers, granite contractor J. E. Dutton, cut-stone contractor Rawnsley and Jackson, bluestone contractor Thomas J. Dunn, fireproofer Roebling Construction Company, carpenter Charles Morton, and electrician James Reilly's Sons Co.Form and facade
As designed, the building is divided into two parts: the drill shed to the west, in the middle of the block, and the administration building to the east, facing Lexington Avenue. Both structures were designed with brick facades accented by limestone trim. On 25th Street, there is a wing at the southwest corner with a frontage of and a depth of ; it is four stories high and was used as an infirmary.Administration building
The administration building is three stories high and is topped by a double-height mansard roof. The main elevation of the building's facade is on Lexington Avenue and is symmetrical, being arranged vertically into five bays. On the north and south ends of the Lexington Avenue elevation, pavilions protrude slightly onto the street. At the base of the building, a limestone water table wraps across all three elevations of the facade. A limestone band course also wraps horizontally across the facade, underneath the first-story window sills. The center of the Lexington Avenue elevation contains a massive limestone round arch, surrounded by brick headers and topped by an eagle-shaped keystone. A sally port is recessed deeply within this archway and is shielded by an iron portcullis. On the rest of the ground story, there are long, narrow rectangular windows shielded by iron grilles.On the second story of the Lexington Avenue elevation, there are quoins on the outer edge of each pavilion. Between each set of quoins are limestone plaques bearing the names of battles where the 69th Regiment fought. On the remainder of the second story, each bay contains tripartite windows with transom bars at their tops. All of the bays on the Lexington Avenue facade, and the center two bays on 25th and 26th Streets, are separated by polygonal limestone-trimmed oriel windows, which served as gun bays. Above the second floor, a cornice with large brackets runs horizontally across the facade, and there is a brick parapet directly above the cornice. The mansard roof is made of slate and covered with copper. The mansard roof was originally one story high, making the administration building tall. The roof was expanded in the 1920s to two stories; the modern-day roof has pairs of round-arched or rectangular dormers with copper frames.
Drill shed
The drill shed is oriented east–west along 25th and 26th Streets and is variously cited as measuring ; ; or. It has a brick facade with limestone trim, similar to in the administration building. On all sides, the first story consists of a brick and stone wall with buttresses. The roof is a barrel vault that early sources cited as measuring high. Local firm Milliken Brothers manufactured the steelwork for the roof, which is supported by six arches, each consisting of two three-hinged steel trusses. The trusses are grouped into pairs and are riveted together, spanning a distance of. The roof also has a sealed-off skylight which measured. By the late 20th century, an aluminized fabric covering had been placed over the roof.Features
Both the drill hall and the administration building were constructed with a superstructure of steel beams. There are no columns within the armory itself; instead, the weight of the upper stories is carried by the load-bearing exterior walls, which are very thick and have few windows.The entrance of the drill hall led into a lobby with stairways and elevators on either side. On the first story of the administration building, were the regimental library, colonel's room, and officers' rooms. The lieutenant colonel's study contains an antique table, while the colonel's room has 69th Regiment memorabilia including Medals of Honor and portraits commissioned from the American Civil War. The primary feature of the first story was the drill hall at the rear, measuring across. The drill hall is surrounded on all sides by a balcony, which is wide. The eastern wall also contains an arch measuring across and tall, which was the largest in the United States when the building was completed in the 1900s. The outer edges of the arch measure wide and tall, leading The New York Times to say that it was "asserted to be the largest brick arch in the world".
The second story was used for regimental company rooms. The third story has a gymnasium measuring across. The fourth floor had showers and restrooms, as well as rooms for the quartermasters, drum corps, and band. In the basement were a shooting range, a two-lane bowling alley, a magazine, and mess rooms. There is also a meeting room with murals in the basement. Military memorabilia, such as grenades, helmets, drums, and bayonets, are displayed throughout the armory.
History
After the American Civil War ended, the New York state government passed a law, which mandated that armories be erected for volunteer regiments by each of the individual counties. This resulted in the Armory Board of the City of New York being created in April 1884. The board erected many of Manhattan's armories: prior to the board's establishment, only one armory had been built in Manhattan, the Seventh Regiment Armory on the Upper East Side. As such, most volunteer regiments drilled in any available space, such as public markets or rented building lofts. This included the 69th Infantry Regiment of New York, a largely Irish-American regiment which until 1880 was located at what is now Essex Market. That year, the 69th moved to the Tompkins Market Armory, which had been vacated by the 7th New York Militia Regiment when the Seventh Regiment Armory opened.Development
Site selection and initial plans
Under Colonel George Moore Smith, as early as 1886, the 69th Regiment had sought permission from the Armory Board to erect a new armory. At the time, armories in Manhattan were concentrated north of 59th Street, so the board wanted to build an armory that was south of 42nd Street. At first, the Armory Board wanted to erect a new armory at the site of the Tompkins Square Armory, but this plan was rejected. Another site at the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 23rd Street, occupied by a City College of New York building, was identified by 1896 but was also rejected. Colonel Edward Duffy and other regimental officers said the City College site, at, would be too small for a drill hall. Duffy instead recommended that the Armory Board acquire a nearby site bounded by Fourth Avenue, 26th Street, Lexington Avenue, and 25th Street.The Armory Board accepted the site on 25th and 26th Streets in September 1899, excluding the land abutting Fourth Avenue, and recommended in January 1900 that the city acquire the site through condemnation. A set of commissioners were appointed that May to appraise the land. In October 1900, the city appointed Horgan & Slattery to design the 69th Regiment Armory; the relatively unknown firm had connections to the politically powerful Tammany Hall organization of the time. That December, Brigadier-General McCoskry Butt expressed his opposition to the design, but the Armory Board nonetheless approved the plans the next month. Horgan and Slattery filed plans for the armory in October 1901, which were to cost $450,000 and contain a drill hall, gymnasium, shooting range, pool, seven-story lookout tower, and other rooms for the regiment.