69th Regiment Armory (New York City, New York)

 military, armory, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, interesting place, historic landmark, 1906_construction

5-story Beaux-Arts style armory completed in 1906. Designed by Hunt & Hunt, it was the first armory built in New York City to not be modeled on a medieval fortress. The Armory was the site of the controversial 1913 Armory Show, in which modern art was first publicly presented in the United States, per the efforts of Irish American collector John Quinn. It has a 5,000 seat arena that is used for sporting and entertainment events such as the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. The building is still used to house the headquarters of the New York Army National Guard's 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment (known as the "Fighting Irish" since Gettysburg), as well as for the presentation of special events. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Armory served as a counseling center for the victims and families. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965.

The facades are clad in reddish-brown brick, topped by a French Second Empire-style mansard roof at the east end and the south part of the west end. Its formidable mass represents a type of building that served in the dual capacity of military facility and social clubhouse for units of the National Guard. The building consists of the two standard elements of armory design: an administration building fronting on Lexington Avenue and a vast drill shed rising behind.

The administration building extends the full length of the block along Lexington Avenue. A 3-story brick structure with limestone trim, it i topped by a high 2-story mansard roof. The main elements of the building's essentially symmetrical composition are two slightly projecting quoined end pavilions articulating the building's corners and a massive, deeply recessed arched entryway in
the center bay. The arch is formed with concentric rows of brick headers. A sculptured winged eagle forms the keystone of the entry arch.

As there are no structural columns in the armory, the floors are carried by unusually thick walls, their massiveness emphasized by the contrasting smallness of its fenstration and by the depth of their reveals. A stone string course forms the lintels and sills of the first floor windows and continues to wrap both the administration building and drill hall providing a strong horizontal accent. At the 2nd floor, the facade is punctuated with transomed windows set in groups of three, alternating with projecting polygonal gun bays or "eyries." A large, bracketed limestone cornice tops an entablature pierced with attic windows on the Lexington Avenue facade. The cornice of the main building continues along the roof of the drill hall. A brick parapet rises above the cornice line abutting the high, 2-story mansard roof that crowns the headhouse. The slate-covered roof was originally one story with circular dormer windows. In 1926 the roof was raised and windows altered. The new rectilinear and round-headed windows have classical surrounds of copper.

A small 4-story wing designed to house a hospital at the southwest corner of the lot is identical in detailing to the administration building.

The great arched drill hall of the Sixty-Ninth Regiment Armory is nearly 130' in height. The hall, measuring 201' x 169', has an arched roof carried by six pairs of three-hinged riveted steel trusses each with a span of 190'. The steelwork was executed by Milliken Bros. of New York. The innovative feature in the design of the drill hall is the method by which the trusses are carried on the exterior of the hall giving the interior a large clear span of open space. The arched roof of the shed rests on a base of brick trimmed with limestone. A skylight, now boarded over, extends the full length of the drill hall with total dimensions of 80' x 202'. The 90-foot arch in the east gable wall of the drill hall was the largest brick arch in the country at the time of construction. Originally sheathed in metal, the exterior of the drill shed roof has recently been covered with an aluminized fabric .

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