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The work of Architect Isaac G.Perry
The
only Armory in the state currently in use for residential purposes.
Amsterdam
Armory—Historic and Architectural Overview - Photos and text
by Bruce G. Harvey, Historian
Built in 1895, the former National Guard
Armory in Amsterdam was one of dozens that were built throughout
New York State in the few decades surrounding the turn of the 20th
century. While each had a distinct design, they all shared a “family
resemblance.” The Armory, now in private hands as a residence
and B&B, is called the “Amsterdam Castle”—an
apt name since the family residence of New York’s historic
armories was based quite deliberately on medieval imagery.
Architectural styles in 19th century America
were used deliberately by architects and builders to create images
and to convey meanings and associations in the minds of those who
lived and worked in the buildings or just passed by them on the
street. It is left to the historians and observers of later ages
to work back from the styles to understand the periods in which
the styles were popular. The medieval-inspired National Guard armories
in New York give us historians plenty to work with, and help everyone
to understand the various architectural details in and on the Amsterdam
Castle.
It is important to start with the simple
fact: these Armories were built by the State of New York for individual
National Guard companies in each community. For those who are not
aware, the National Guard is the successor to the independent, community-based
militias of the Revolutionary War era and the early decades of the
United States. Citizens in the new American nation were justifiably
wary of a powerful, national, standing Army; such centralization
of military power, as they had seen from European history, represented
a threat to the liberty of free citizens. Instead, the nation relied
on local militias that could be called up and organized under the
small Regular Army in times of need. There were few such times of
need through the middle of the 19th century, and the funding of
militias tended to be haphazard. Their facilities for meeting and
training, which the local communities provided, were informal and
generally shared with other community functions such as markets
and courthouses.
The Civil War, however, placed a great burden
on the militias throughout the nation, and pointed to the need for
more formal attention. In 1863, during the depths of the war, Congress
passed the Armory Act in which all state militia units became part
of the National Guard; the Act also required each state to supply
their National Guard units with arms and equipment. In the period
of confusion after the Civil War, however, when the nation’s
strife was more political than military, the states again slipped
into lassitude with regard to the National Guard.
Later in the 19th century, however, the nation
began to witness a period of great civic unrest as the combination
of rapid industrialization and extensive immigration, all taking
place within the suddenly growing cities, made this formally rural
nation very nervous indeed. Beginning in the late 1870s, industrial
workers began to organize into unions of various stripes, many of
which lobbied for improved conditions in pay and faced various sorts
of resistance; many of these strikes and counter-strikes turned
violent and required military intervention both to restore peace
and, occasionally, to try to force workers back to work. With threats
of violence in communities both great and small, and yet without
a sizeable national standing Army, the nation increasingly turned
to its National Guard units to keep the peace at home. Suddenly,
the Armory Act of 1863 seemed to make a lot more sense, with New
York leading the way in the design and construction of new armories.
It is important to remember that Amsterdam, along with much of the
Mohawk River Valley, was a heavily industrialized region which attracted
vast numbers of Eastern European immigrants, making the fear of
labor unrest and violence seem all the more plausible.
Uncertainty about the effects of industrialization,
which was a part of the drive to construct new National Guard armories,
also influenced the choice of architectural style for the new facilities.
As a part of the language of styles which the architects used, references
to historical periods were designed to evoke certain feelings and
associations based on commonly-held historical understandings, making
particular styles appropriate for particular uses. The Gothic Revival,
and other variants derived from medieval sources, pushed any number
of buttons in the mid and late 19th century in America.
Americans in the early years of the Republic
drew almost exclusively on classical styles for both public and
private architecture. Classical styles pointed back to those alleged
paragons of democracy and republicanism, ancient Greece and Rome,
from which many Americans saw the new nation having descended. At
the same time, America came into being during the self-proclaimed
Age of Reason, and classical styles, with their formal rules of
order and geometry, seemed most appropriate. Early in the 19th century,
however, cracks in the order appeared as many of the nation’s
cultural leaders worried about the over-reliance on abstract reason
and the loss of emotion and faith; a part of this was a concern
for the new industrial order, which put formerly personal relations
onto a more machine-like basis. As one historian has noted, the
Gothic Revival “met a real social need for some antidote to
the Classical Revival’s over-insistence on geometry, reason,
order, balance, symmetry, precision.”
In its early uses by pioneering architects
and designers, the Gothic Revival often was called the Castellated
style, as it relied for some of its effects on having castellations,
or notched parapets at the top of the building like the medieval
castles of old. More generically, however, the Gothic Revival included
three key components: an emphasis on verticality, such as in the
use of pointed arches rather than the rounded arches of the classical
revival; the use of asymmetrical forms and components; and the more
vivid combination of textures and patterns to attract the eye. All
of these can be seen in the later National Guard armories in New
York.
As a residential style, the Gothic Revival
was largely out of fashion by the time of the Civil War. By that
time, however, it had morphed into a variety of Picturesque styles
that drew roughly from medieval sources, and referred to a wide
range of cultural associations that had a great appeal to Americans
in the mid and late 19th century who were anxious over their place
in history and the world. These medieval-inspired Picturesque styles
found continued use largely in various institutional uses. Churches,
for example, liked the various Gothic and medieval styles for calling
to mind the Christian culture of the middle ages, while universities
and libraries liked the references to the images of monks and scholars
in medieval libraries and universities. The popular association
of the medieval period with knights and castles made the new impulse
toward Armories a natural fit.
The prototype for all National Guard Armories
in New York was the Seventh Regiment Armory in New York City. Constructed
in 1879, it had all of the key components of later armories around
the state: its design was inspired by medieval and Gothic military
architecture and was intended to inspire awe, fear, strength, and
patriotism; it functioned both as a military facility for training
and storage and as a clubhouse for its members; and it consisted
of an administration building in the front and a drill shed attached
to the rear.
Amsterdam’s Armory was designed in
1895 by Isaac Perry, who served as the de facto State Architect
from the late 1880s until his retirement in 1899. He designed as
many as 40 National Guard armories for small towns and large cities
throughout the state, all of them based on the Seventh Regiment
Armory prototype. As with his other armories, the Amsterdam Armory
was massive in scale and constructed of brick, resting upon a rough
stone foundation. The front Administration section features an asymmetrical
north-facing façade with an engaged five-story octagonal
turret at the northeast corner and a lower three-story engaged rounded
turret at the northwest corner, with two lower two-story rounded
turrets flanking the off-center entrance. The entrance between the
turrets consists of a round-arched sally port, framed in rough-hewn
limestone and protected by a metal portcullis or gate, with the
insignia of the 46th Separate Company carved in stone on the second
floor above the entrance. In keeping with the medieval castle theme,
the windows across the façade are narrow, vertical rectangular
openings, with rough-hewn limestone sills at the bottom and lintels
across the top. The façade is imposing in its own right with
the massive turrets and sally port entrance. The visual impact is
greatly increased, however, by the building’s location on
its site, a tall bluff overlooking the Mohawk River and the City
of Amsterdam.
The drill shed extends from the rear (south)
of the Administration section, opening directly from the rear of
the entrance foyer. It features a gable roof with the steel truss
framing visible from the interior. The interior of the drill shed
is primarily a large, unarticulated space; it now houses a full-size
basketball court. An intriguing feature of the drill shed is the
full-width balcony that opens from the second floor staircase landing
of the Administration building. The balcony is protected by a railing
consisting of beautifully turned wooden spindles.
The east side of the building features a
lower one-story section that runs the length of the drill shed,
and contains spaces for locker and store rooms. The west of the
building, meanwhile, is covered by a garage wing that was added
in the 1950s; the garage features a flat roof supported by closely-spaced
metal trusses.
Given this range of medieval-inspired details,
the former National Guard Armory clearly lives up to its new name
of the “Amsterdam Castle.” Its architectural details
are clearly worth a closer look in the following photographs.
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1.
This view, looking southwest from the corner of Florida and Dewitt
Streets, conveys the dramatic and imposing nature of the building,
and its siting in particular. The Amsterdam Armory was built on
a high bluff above Florida Street, and faces north with a commanding
view across the Mohawk River to the City of Amsterdam. This impression
was not accidental, but was instead a part of the message of the
Armory: an impregnable fortress standing guard over the City, and
by means of which the City’s safety could be assured. The
design of the façade reinforces the impression of safety
for the surrounding community. Everything about it, both structurally
and in terms of architectural style, suggests solidity and security.
It was built in what many called the “castellated” style,
as it originally had castellated parapets along the tops of the
turrets and the flat portions; castellations were used on castles
in medieval Europe when castles were crucial military fortifications
to which the surrounding community could retreat in times of danger.
Structurally, it is horizontal in orientation, which creates a visual
impression of solidity; even the tall turrets are broad in proportion.
2.
Armories in the late 19th and early 20th centuries had two key functions,
represented architecturally by the two very different parts of the
buildings. The front section was used for administrative purposes,
providing meeting and office space for the officers and staff who
commanded and managed the particular National Guard Unit. In addition,
the armories had to provide space for the members of the National
Guard unit to drill and train. In the early 19th century, militia
units (which were the predecessors to the current National Guard)
had to drill wherever the local community provided; often, this
meant open fields or halls in buildings meant for other purposes.
When New York State began building Armories throughout the state
in the late 19th century, one of the key objectives was to provide
a large drill shed where the troops could train. The gable-roofed
drill shed is readily apparent in this view, extending to the rear
(south) of the administration building. The lower shed-roof section
that runs along the east side of the drill shed, with the striped
roof, originally housed locker rooms and storage areas, both of
which remain intact.
This view shows the details of both the locker room section adjacent
to the drill shed and the tall turret on the administration section
of the Armory. The tall, five-story turret on the northeast corner
clearly is the building’s most eye-catching feature, rising
in brick above a rough-hewn limestone foundation. The turret is
octagonal in plan, and sports richly-detailed corbelling below the
fifth story, in which successive layers of bricks project outward
from the layers below. In addition to its broad and massive proportions,
its image of defensive solidity is intensified by the narrow rectangular
windows which conjure up images of arrows being shot at invading
hordes of medieval knights. The one visible remnant of the original
castellations on the roof, meanwhile, is visible in this view, immediately
to the rear of the turret; they have, unfortunately, been filled
in elsewhere on the building (but are visible on the historic photograph
at the top of this site.). Finally, while the overall style of the
building is medieval in orientation, the architect also included
such details from the classical revival including dentils on the
locker room section, the small tooth-like blocks between the limestone
blocks atop the windows and the cornice.
Next to the
massive corner turrets, the most recognizable medieval feature of
the Amsterdam Armory is the entrance. The key element is the round-arched
sally port; in defensive terms (appropriate to a castle), the sally
port is a secured, controlled entranceway, usually including two
successive doors. In the case of the Amsterdam Armory, the outer
door is a metal grille, similar to a portcullis which, in medieval
castles, were opened by raising it vertically along tracks in the
side walls. The sally port here is framed by rough hewn limestone
voussoirs; with the grated portcullis, it protects an open entryway
before the heavy wooden front door. The entryway is one story in
height, and forms a balcony on the second floor; the balcony in
turn is framed on each side by projecting oval-shaped turrets with
richly detailed corbels. Above the balcony, a stone plaque identifies
the Armory as the home of the 46th Separate Company of the NY National
Guard; in 1898, the 46th Separate Company became “G”
Company of the 105th Infantry Regiment of the NY National Guard.
Once admitted
through the portcullis and the heavy front door, visitors come into
the central foyer of the Administration Section of the Armory. This
is a public space, with doors leading left and right into either
private or administrative rooms, and is wide enough to hold many
people. The door at the rear of the foyer, directly opposite the
front door, serves as an entrance through a short hallway into the
massive drill shed at the rear of the building, while a staircase
at the rear of the foyer to the right provides access to the second
floor. The terrazzo floor likely is not the original floor, as suggested
by the placement of “Co. G/105th Inf.” in the immediate
foreground; the original occupant, the 46th Separate Company, became
G Company of the 105th Infantry Regiment only in 1898, three years
after the Armory was built.
In keeping with the defensive
theme of a medieval castle, the interior parts of the Amsterdam
Armory were not meant to be inviting. The foyer clearly limits access
to the interior rooms, which are secured with heavy wooden doors.
Unlike many houses of the Victorian period, the staircase which
provides access to the second floor rooms is not a prominent architectural
feature meant to be seen and admired by visitors and serving as
a continuation of the foyer. Instead, the staircase is hidden from
view behind the front rooms, forcing visitors and residents to make
a 90-degree turn. In keeping with the building’s institutional
use, it is also a common staircase that provides access to the basement
as well as the second floor. Although planned as a utilitarian staircase,
it was designed with modest wooden embellishments including a coffered
newel post, elegant wainscot paneling, and drop pendants and paneling
beneath the flight rising from the intermediate landing to the second
floor.
The first
door to the right upon entering the foyer from the front door now
opens to a guest suite with three rooms—a sitting room and
bedroom in enfilade, with a bathroom opening from the bedroom. Originally,
however, the enfilade suite served in part as a pantry through which
goods could be dispersed. As a result, the entrance to the suite
is protected by a Dutch door in which the top portion can be opened
while locking the bottom portion. Although built in 1895, during
the High Victorian period in America, the architectural embellishments
in the Armory are modest, with a simple wooden door surround with
a transom, and a simple yet elegant wainscot. Looking closely, however,
one can see the ceiling of the first room in the suite, which is
clad in ornamental pressed metal.
The second
room in the suite at the front of the Armory is now used as a bedroom
for a guest suite. This room is located in the projecting turret
at the northwest corner of the house, and the elegant cornice betrays
the curved shape of the turret. The curved shape of the room’s
walls is reinforced by the paneled wainscot, while the narrow windows
that help to create the image of a medieval castle on the exterior
feature Italianate frames on the interior, marked by the circular
rosettes at the top corners. The ornamental qualities of the room
are then enhanced by the ornamental pressed metal ceiling.
The
central foyer, seen in the photograph above, also provides access
to the drill shed at the rear of the building. A short hallway connects
the drill shed to the front Administration section. A billiard room
now opens from the hallway, making for a pleasant recreation space
separate from the residential portions of the restored Armory. The
connective purpose of the room can be seen in the sloping roof which
links the administrative and exercise sections of the Armory.
Once
on the second floor, the eastern portion of the building contains
a large open meeting room that opens directly from the staircase
landing. This open meeting room in turn leads, by way of a short
archway, to a reading room in the tall, five-story turret at the
northeast corner of the building. The curved cornice line of the
reading room, which is just visible in the background of the photograph,
indicates its placement within the turret. The most distinctive
features of the archway, however, are the spindle friezes at each
end in which “NG 46 NY” is spelled out, indicating the
building’s use originally by the 46th Separate Company of
the NY National Guard. In 1898, this Company became “G”
Company of the105th Infantry Regiment of the NY National Guard.
The large
open meeting room on the east side of the second floor opens directly
from the staircase landing. As discussed above in relation to the
foyer, the staircase is not a public feature of the building and
is set to the back and to one side. The second floor landing, therefore,
opens to a short hallway that has no direct access to natural light.
In compensation, though, all of the doors that open onto the landing
have transoms at the tops; included within the simple classical-styled
door frames, the transoms allow the natural light from the rooms
that face the front into the staircase landing. The short hallway
itself, meanwhile, is generous in its proportions, and the staircase
on this second floor still retains the simple but elegant wooden
details including a coffered newel post and paneling and a drop
pendant on the underside of the flight leading to the third floor.
The short
hallway on the second floor has a generous size in part to allow
it to serve as an anteroom to the Commander’s Office. Despite
the overwhelmingly medieval feeling of the Armory’s exterior,
this room features a very handsome wooden fireplace surround which
was designed with distinctly classical revival elements including
the columns resting on double plinths, compressed acanthus capitals,
and an elegant entablature consisting of an architrave with egg
and dart molding, a curved convex frieze, and a cornice consisting
of three bands of molding. The firebox is surrounding decorative
glazed bricks beneath a projecting mantle supported by curved brackets,
while a mirror with beveled edges is set between the mantle and
the entablature. The status of the space, which now serves as one
of the B&B guest rooms, is indicated on the door by the sign
indicating that the room is for “Officers Only.”
This view
shows the drill shed, looking toward the front Administration section.
The drill shed, which extends from the rear of the Administration
section, features a gable roof with the steel truss framing visible
from the interior. The short hallway from the front Administration
section is visible in the center of the photograph. The interior
of the drill shed is primarily a large, unarticulated space, and
provided indoor space for the National Guard troops to train and
drill. An intriguing feature of the drill shed is the full-width
balcony that opens from the second floor hallway of the Administration
building. The balcony is protected by a railing consisting of turned
wooden spindles. The drill shed now houses a full-sized basketball
court.
This is a
detail view of the metal trusses that support the drill shed roof.
It was taken from the balcony, and is looking toward the rear of
the building. The construction details of the trusses are clearly
visible in this view, and show how the use of steel revolutionized
the practice of architecture in the late 19th century. Steel retains
a great deal of strength even with it is thin, which allows for
openness in the space that it contains. The individual thin steel
bars are joined by gromets, and make for a very rigid yet lightweight
structural system for this large roof. An intriguing feature of
the drill shed which is visible in this view are the radiator heating
pipes which line the rear wall of the building, forming L-shapes
as they surround the rear entrances.
The Amsterdam
Armory, like all National Guard armories in New York State, were
designed not as residential spaces, but as spaces for both administrative
and training functions. In a sense, they were very large clubhouses
for the members of the National Guard company, to which the members
would come for training and exercise. An essential part of the drill
shed, therefore, was the locker room. This is a large, unarticulated
space that lines the east wall of the drill shed beneath its own
roof, with individual lockers in oak with doors featuring eight
recessed panels; the top panels contained decorative piercings which
allowed for air circulation. Although nearly all of the armory has
been restored in recent years, the locker room has not, and retains
much of its original, turn-of-the-century feel. An important part
of that historic character is formed by the original instructions
to the troops, which were printed on papers that were then posted
on the inside doors of the lockers. Many of these original instructions
remain, as shown in this view.
Much of the
Amsterdam Armory remains in its original condition, even if restored.
In the 1950s, however, the State added a garage to the west side
of the building. The original outside wall of the Armory’s
west side is visible in this photograph, with the vertical buttresses
along the wall and original window openings now replaced with modern
brick. The roof is a distinctive feature of this garage, as is clear
in this view. The lightweight steel trusses are very closely spaced,
providing vastly more stability than is necessary for the flat metal
roof above; clearly over-engineered, the roof is capable of supporting
a helicopter, should it be necessary.
Not all of
the spaces in the Armory were glamorous, as this photo attests.
Located beneath the locker room section along the east side of the
drill shed, this space shows the original stone foundation on the
right side. The galvanized ductwork, however, is a modern addition.
The Amsterdam
Armory remains heated as it originally was, by means of steam radiators.
While the armory contains a vast amount of space, the building’s
solid masonry walls provide a high degree of natural insulation.
Despite this, the building still requires a significant amount of
power to keep sufficient steam coursing through the building’s
veins of pipes and radiators; at the time that the building was
constructed, the ability to provide steam heat throughout such a
large building was seen as innovative and a very useful modern convenience.
The twin boilers in the basement provide witness to the planning
that went into keeping the rooms throughout the Armory comfortable.
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