Schenectady Armory

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Coordinates: 42°48′48.13″N 73°56′57.36″W / 42.8133694°N 73.9492667°W / 42.8133694; -73.9492667
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Schenectady Armory
MPS
Army National Guard Armories in New York State
NRHP reference No.95000087
Added to NRHP1995

The Schenectady Armory is located on Washington Avenue in the city of the same name in the U.S. state of New York. It is a brown brick building dating to 1936.

New York's

Tudorbethan mode for the interior. The armory remains virtually intact today. It was home to two units of the New York Army National Guard until it was closed in 2008. In 1995 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
.

Building

The armory is on a

one-way extension of Washington Avenue just north of its interchange with Interstate 890 and just south of Schenectady County Community College's Elston Hall
opposite, the former Hotel Van Curler. To its east is Fuller Street and some industrial buildings.

Exterior

It is on a 1.9-acre (0.77 ha) lot with one other building, a modern garage not considered a

facade is otherwise embellished with details representing both the Art Deco and Tudorbethan styles.[1]

Projecting perpendicularly to the main administration building on the east is the drill shed, a

buttresses with stone caps. The brick-faced concrete block garage is to the southeast.[1]

Interior

The main entrance

cross-vaulted, with those on the second story using barrel vaults. Both have concrete ceilings and brick walls.[1]

At the end of the north wing's first story, the company meeting room, later converted into a bar and dining room, features

paneled wainscoting, stuccoed concrete walls and a concrete ceiling encasing the support beams. The offices elsewhere in the wing have generally been subdivided and modernized, although the second-story corridor's barrel vault, accentuated by spandrels supported by brick piers, is intact.[1]

In the drill shed, the ceiling is wainscoted, with steel trusses, exposed brick walls and an intact balcony at the west end. The original hardwood flooring has been covered with wooden tiles.[1]

History

Schenectady's first armory was built in 1868 to serve two local units, the Washington Continentals and the Citizens' Corps. The former, formed in 1839, had first served in the

New York National Guard in 1880, becoming the 36th Separate Company.[1]

Their armory was built with a $30,000 ($624,000 in contemporary dollars[2]) appropriation from the state obtained by newly elected assemblyman Robert Furman. A three-member commission including Furman chose the hill in Crescent Park overlooking the city as the site for a three-story red brick building with a polychrome slate roof. Records show an "83rd Regiment" drilling in the armory until it disbanded in 1874. It may have become the 36th and 37th Separate Companies.[1]

In 1890, sentiment began to grow to build a new armory. State architect

American Expeditionary Force, a name that remained associated with Schenectady for many years. After the war, as many as five separate companies were using the armory, and throughout the 1920s they began lobbying for another new armory.[1]

The state finally began construction of the current building in 1936. Unlike other armories built in New York during the Great Depression, Schenectady's was located in the core of the city, near the hotel, the General Electric plant a quarter-mile (400 m) away, and businesses that had flocked to Erie Boulevard, the recently filled former route of the Erie Canal. The old armory in Crescent Park was demolished in 1946.[1]

The armory continued to serve local military needs through World War II, the Korean War and the early years of the Cold War. In the early 1960s it was isolated in the neighborhood when I-890 was built. The hotel went bankrupt but was quickly reused as Schenectady County Community College's Elston Hall.[1]

By the 21st century the armory had again grown outdated, and the state's

Pretty Little Liars Original Sin
turning Studio A into an indoor amusement park using both bespoke elements and a full compliment of full sized, actual amusement park rides including a ferris wheel. Throughout, independent films have used multiple locations including freestanding Studio B, listed above as the modern garage. In 2022 Armory Studios NY welcomed Van Gogh, The Immersive Experience to Studio A, which ran from June of that year until October of 2023. Following that successful run, Monet The Immersive Experience was installed and remains running. Van Gogh Expo attracted upwards of 140,000 visitors and to meet that challenge, Armory Studios NY opened Armory Lounge NY, the former Visiting Officers Lounge, serving coffee, cocktails and light fare. The mess hall was converted to THE OFFICER’S CLUB, a flexible event and catering space, to meet growing demand.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Todd, Nancy (December 1994). "National Register of Historic Places nomination, Schenectady Armory". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved September 19, 2009.
  2. ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  3. New York Division of Military and Naval Affairs
    . November 7, 2008. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
  4. ^ "Schenectady Armory sold for $260K at auction - The Business Review". Archived from the original on 2012-08-03.

External links

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