The 13th Regiment Armory is a historic armory designed by architects Rudolph L. Daus and

Fay Kellogg Fay Kellogg (May 13, 1871 – July 10, 1918) was described as "the foremost woman architect in the United States" in the early years of the 20th century. She specialized in steel construction. It is located at 357

Marcus Garvey Marcus Mosiah Garvey Sr. (17 August 188710 June 1940) was a Jamaican political activist, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African ...

Boulevard (also known as Sumner Avenue) between Putnam and Jefferson Avenues in Bedford-Stuyvesant,

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Daus had previously designed the Lincoln Club on Putnam Avenue in 1889. The armory building is currently used as the Pamoja House (also known as Sumner House Shelter Care Center for Men), a homeless shelter for men managed by Black Veterans for Social Justice, Inc. and supervised by New York City Department of Homeless Services. The Pamoja House is named for the Swahili word for "together". The armory's design is expansive, yet austere. According to Francis Morrone, "Something, perhaps the busy-ness or a greater stridency in the

machicolation A machicolation (french: mâchicoulis) is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones or other material, such as boiling water, hot sand, quicklime or boiling cooking oil, could be dropped on attackers at ...

s, makes this armory seem more forbidding than the 23rd Regiment's which is actually rather jolly."

History

Previous locations

The 13th Regiment was previously housed in Gothic Hall on Adams Street in the 1830s. In 1858, it moved to the Henry Street Armory. and finally to the Flatbush Armory in 1874–75.

Construction and use as armory

The 13th Regiment had received a $300,000 award for the construction of a new armory in 1890. However, subsequent changes increased the armory's cost to $400,000. The armory ultimately cost nearly $700,000, more than twice its original outlay, which was paid by the

Kings County Kings County or King's County may refer to: Places Canada *Kings County, New Brunswick *Kings County, Nova Scotia *Kings County, Prince Edward Island ** King's County (electoral district), abolished in 1892 Ireland * County Offaly, formerly calle ...

government. The ''

Brooklyn Daily Eagle :''This article covers both the historical newspaper (1841–1955, 1960–1963), as well as an unrelated new Brooklyn Daily Eagle starting 1996 published currently'' The ''Brooklyn Eagle'' (originally joint name ''The Brooklyn Eagle'' and ''King ...

'' called the drastic cost increases as "a scandal of no common dimensions", and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' described the armory as one of three Brooklyn armories facing extreme cost overruns, the others being the

14th Regiment Armory The 14th Regiment Armory, also known as the Eighth Avenue Armory and the Park Slope Armory, is a historic National Guard armory building located on Eighth Avenue between 14th and 15th Streets in the South Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New ...

Park Slope Park Slope is a neighborhood in northwestern Brooklyn, New York City, within the area once known as South Brooklyn. Park Slope is roughly bounded by Prospect Park and Prospect Park West to the east, Fourth Avenue to the west, Flatbush A ...

and the

23rd Regiment Armory The 23rd Regiment Armory, also known as the Bedford Atlantic Armory, the Marcy Avenue Armory, and the Williamsburg Armory, is a historic National Guard armory building located at 1322 Bedford Avenue between Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Street in ...

in Crown Heights. A panel of experts recommended cutting several ornate features and downsizing the drill room in order to complete the project within the $300,000 appropriation. The armory opened on April 23, 1894. The excessive reallocation of money on the armory's lavish dimensions had resulted in insufficient funding for such items as sidewalks and fences. The budget cuts also resulted in several design deficiencies: for instance, by September 1894, the roof was found to be leaking. Then, in 1903, a wall at the 13th Regiment Armory fell on seven men, killing two of them. Because the drill hall had been downsized as part of the budget cuts, it soon became insufficient for training, and was extended in 1906. The architectural work for this was done by the Parfitt Brothers. In 1921, a large memorial made by L. Riene Co. was erected in the southwest yard with the names of all the soldiers who had been stationed in the armory during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, with the casualties listed at the top. Subsequently, a 1944 fire at the armory burned many of the regiment's trophies. The 13th Regiment Armory was used for several civilian purposes over the years, including as a schools'

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

venue,

Sunday school A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. ...

competitions, and singing contests. On June 22–28, 1953, the building was used for the 48th annual session of the Baptist Congress by the Sunday School Congress and

Baptist Training Union Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

. By the mid-20th century, urban armories had become less necessary, and in 1974 the Thirteenth Regiment was deactivated. Plans to close the armory were announced in 1971 as part of a budget cut. A black veterans' group characterized the proposal as racist, since the 13th Regiment Armory was located in a predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhood. A methadone treatment center was proposed for the site in 1972, but that plan was opposed by residents who were concerned about crime increases and wanted more attention to be paid to health, housing, recreation, and schools in Bedford–Stuyvesant.

Conversion into homeless shelter

After deactivation, the 13th Regiment Armory's headhouse was used to store vehicles while the administration building was used as a school. However, by the 1980s, existing homeless shelters in New York City had become overcrowded, so the city started opening new shelters in armories. Starting in 1987 or 1988, the 13th Regiment Armory was converted for use as a men's homeless shelter, In 1992, a judge ordered that the armory shelter's capacity be cut back from 550 to 200 homeless men. Some residents of the nearby neighborhood did not want the shelter to be opened in the first place, but by 1993, had planted some flowers outside the shelter to beautify it. According to the Pamoja House's website in 2015, it "specializes in managing a homeless population that was refused from other shelters in New York City and is a 'next-step' facility. Residents of Pamoja House were deemed 'non-compliant' in general population shelters." As a next-step shelter, residents had an 8 PM curfew rather than the DHS standard of 10 PM, and the facility had no television sets, dirty sheets, and meals consisting of one frankfurter and two cups of juice.

Steven Banks Steven Craig Banks (born November 27, 1954) is an American actor, musician, comedian, and writer of television, plays, books and cartoons, including ''CatDog'', ''Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi'', and ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. Performing In 1987, Banks ...

, as commissioner of the Department of Homeless Services, eliminated the "next step" program, converting it into a general population men's shelter with the maximum 200 beds. The company rooms are used as dormitories, and the drill shed is filled with additional dormitories that are no longer in use after the 200-bed limitation was imposed (at one point it had 550 beds in active use). Memorial Hall is used as the mess, and is the only part of the building with

central air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

. The offices, in one of the company rooms and in the base of the south tower, have window-mounted air conditioners. The north side of the drill hall contains the lavatories and laundry room, but the drill hall is mostly walled off (the walls are about four feet high) and accessible only to staff, as are all floors above the first. On November 29, 2017, security staff and residents were caught on camera punching and kicking shelter resident Alexander Singh. On October 25, 2021, '' The City'' published an interview with Wayne Batchelor, who chose to become street homeless after being forced back into Pamoja House while the pandemic continues.

Design

The 13th Regiment Armory consists of an administration building as well as an attached

barrel-vaulted A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...

drill shed to its east. The lot measures on Marcus Garvey Boulevard and along Putnam and Jefferson Avenues. According to ''

Harper's Weekly ''Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization'' was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor, ...

'', the building was designed to recall thirteenth century

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. Upon the 13th, 14th, and 23rd Regiment Armories' completions in the mid-1890s, the ''

New-York Tribune The ''New-York Tribune'' was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s through the 1860s it was the domi ...

'' stated that "these three armories are the product of a lavish expenditure ... for the support and encouragement of the militia that has perhaps never been excelled."

Exterior

The armory consists of an Administration Building wide by deep. To the east is a drill hall measuring . The main facade of the administration building is located along Marcus Garvey Boulevard to the west. This facade contains a large round-arched, stone-faced stone

sally port A sally port is a secure, controlled entry way to an enclosure, e.g., a fortification or prison. The entrance is usually protected by some means, such as a fixed wall on the outside, parallel to the door, which must be circumvented to enter an ...

, in diameter. There are two turreted towers flanking the arch, each with a diameter of 28 feet., cited in The round towers are tall. The south tower has an observatory, while the north tower has an additional, smaller turret, rising another 28 feet, to serve as an outlook. A terrace measuring in area is located directly above the sally port.

Interior

The building contains a basement and four stories, counting a mezzanine. The basement included rifle galleries, firing rooms, squad drill rooms, large lavatories, and an engine room that provided heat and power to the entire armory. In the 1894 ''Harper's'' article, it was indicated that a

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...

and

bowling alley A bowling alley (also known as a bowling center, bowling lounge, bowling arena, or historically bowling club) is a facility where the sport of bowling is played. It can be a dedicated facility or part of another, such as a clubhouse or dwelling ...

s were expected to be installed, but not at public expense. It includes company rooms feet with ceilings, six on each side, containing captains' and sergeants' rooms, private stairs to locker rooms in the mezzanine. Officers' rooms are on the second floor, described as "large and excellent." There were also council and Veteran Association rooms, , and a gymnasium feet, also on the second floor. The third floor contained a mess-hall, kitchen, and lecture-room. A 1892 ''Harper's'' article described the premises as "one grand

lyceum The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies among countries; usually it is a type of secondary school. Generally in that type of school the t ...

". The drill hall contains galleries with built-in seats on the north, south, and west sides. The roof is supported by 200-foot arch iron trusses with a skylight in the center. The drill hall could be used for sports such as

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

and

, as well as for

gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, s ...

and

calisthenics Calisthenics (American English) or callisthenics (British English) ( /ˌkælɪsˈθɛnɪks/) is a form of strength training consisting of a variety of movements that exercise large muscle groups (gross motor movements), such as standing, graspi ...

References

* * {{cite book , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0I7efjujcFQC&pg=PA131 , last=Todd , first=Nancy , title=New York's Historic Armories: An Illustrated History , publisher=

State University of New York Press The State University of New York (SUNY, , ) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is one of the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. Led by ...

, publication-place=

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York Cit ...

, year=2006 , isbn=978-0-7914-6911-8 , oclc=62697093 , pages=128–131

External links

Black Veterans for Social Justice, Inc.
1894 establishments in New York (state) Armories in New York City Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Buildings and structures completed in 1894 Military facilities in Brooklyn