{"id":121880,"date":"2026-02-03T21:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T21:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/121880\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T21:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T21:55:09","slug":"getting-a-clear-view-of-the-uwss-historic-first-battery-armory-for-the-first-time-in-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/121880\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting a Clear View of the UWS\u2019s Historic First Battery Armory, for the First Time in Decades"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The current view of First Battery Armory from Columbus Avenue. Photos by Scott Etkin<\/p>\n

By Scott Etkin<\/p>\n

If it seems like a medieval castle just appeared out of thin air on West 66th Street, it\u2019s because it has\u2026 kind of.<\/p>\n

The First Battery Armory, with its imposing brick and granite facade, has been stationed at 56 West 66th Street, between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West, for more than a century. But at just three stories tall, it has long been surrounded by taller modern buildings, making it impossible to view from a distance \u2013 at least until recently.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, if you\u2019re on Columbus Avenue looking southeast, the armory\u2019s distinctive turrets can be seen from 350 feet away (according to a Google Maps measurement). This unique view has opened up, for the first time in decades, because of the demolition of 147 Columbus Avenue, a 10-story building that was part of the ABC network\u2019s UWS campus. Extell Development, which now owns the area, intends to build luxury residential apartment buildings on the former ABC site, but it has not made public its plans for this particular lot. Based on the current zoning regulations<\/a>, there are no height limits for the site.<\/p>\n

A closer look at the armory reveals not only interesting architectural details, but a winding history that chronicles the changing needs of a neighborhood. In its very long life, First Battery Armory has housed a civilian militia, a television studio, and ESPN offices. Soon it will become a Jewish college, just the latest in its tale of architectural reinvention.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The building was designated an individual landmark in 1989, and its exterior is largely unchanged since it first opened its doors in 1904. But the interior has undergone many iterations; the armory is one of the Upper West Side\u2019s best examples of \u201cadaptive reuse\u201d \u2013 when an outdated building is repurposed while retaining its historic character \u2013 a practice that\u2019s especially relevant in a neighborhood that has partially been classified as a historic district<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Another view, with Extell\u2019s neighboring supertall building at 50 West 66th Street.<\/p>\n

When it opened in 1904 it was the home of the First Battery, a mounted field artillery unit of the National Guard of the state of New York. Civilian militias were common in those days, and the First Battery Armory was one of ten armories commissioned in New York City in response to workforce riots. Even as far back as 1792, a law required states to have militias as a counterbalance to the federal government.<\/p>\n

The First Battery was a \u201cwell-regarded volunteer unit,\u201d but it did not see active duty during its ten years stationed at the Armory, according to a Landmarks Preservation Commission Designation Report<\/a> by researcher Michael Corbett.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The building was designed to look like a fortress, but it wasn\u2019t really intended to function as one. \u201cThe 19th-century National Guard was in large part also a social organization,\u201d Corbett writes. \u201cIn fact its major activities were athletic events, dances, parties, picnics, and entertainments of all kinds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The role of armories as social hubs is \u201csomething we might use more of in society today as news outlets bemoan the \u2018loneliness epidemic\u2019 in our nation,\u201d Sean Khorsandi, executive director of the UWS preservation group Landmark West, wrote in a message to the Rag.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Details of the building\u2019s facade.<\/p>\n

Still, military iconography is clearly visible throughout the Armory, which was designed by Horgan & Slattery, a firm commonly known as the \u201cTammany architects\u201d for its many contracts with City Hall. Cannons, a horse, spears, and soldiers are depicted near the top of the building, next to the Latin motto \u201cSemper Paratus,\u201d meaning \u201calways ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horses played a big role in the early days of the Armory. There were stalls for 76 horses in the basement, Corbett writes. Then, beginning in 1913, the armory transitioned over to home for the 102nd Medical Battalion, a medical unit that served in World War I and World War II.<\/p>\n

That unit turned out to be the building\u2019s longest tenant, with the next major change not coming for another six decades. In 1976, after a brief stint as a private club that brought tennis courts to the drillroom, according to the Designation Report, Capital Cities\/ABC bought the building at public auction and, in 1977, remodeled the space as a television studio. In addition to daytime TV shows, its credits include the long-running soap opera \u201cOne Life to Live.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2012, the building was remodeled again to serve as offices for ESPN, a subsidiary of Disney, also ABC\u2019s parent company. The Armory was part of the media giant\u2019s campus in the West 60s up until last year, when the whole operation relocated downtown to a new building in Hudson Square.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A rendering of plans for new signage when Hebrew Union College moves into the armory. Courtesy of LVCK<\/p>\n

The future of the First Battery Armory promises to be entirely different from its previous lives. Last year, the building was bought<\/a> by Hebrew Union College<\/a> (HUC), an academic and professional training institution for Reform Judaism. The college\u2019s current New York campus is located in Greenwich Village, and it plans to \u201cfully occupy\u201d the First Battery Armory in early 2027, a HUC spokesperson confirmed to the Rag.<\/p>\n

Construction on the interior is underway to create spaces to study, worship, and gather. \u201cIt\u2019s exhilarating to be creating educational and spiritual spaces to cultivate the next generation of Jewish leadership \u2013 especially in an iconic New York building,\u201d the school\u2019s spokesperson, who asked not to be named, wrote to the Rag.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, architects from LVCK (a studio that\u2019s part of Beyer Blinder Belle, the firm retained for the project<\/a>), presented<\/a> a plan to Community Board 7\u2019s Preservation Committee to install signage for the college. A flagpole and grille with interlacing six-pointed stars above the main entrance, as well as plaques with the college\u2019s logo, are designed to add branding elements for the college while respecting the building\u2019s history and the integrity of its structure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The plans will be presented<\/a> again, this time to the city\u2019s Landmarks Preservation Commission, in two weeks \u2013 almost 122 years to the day after the First Battery Armory officially opened its doors on February 3, 1904.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another Upper West Side armory, the 212th Coast Artillery Armory, was lost as part of the urban renewal plan for Lincoln Center. The former site of that armory is now part of Fordham University\u2019s campus. Landmark West has more information about the building \u2013 HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to West Side Rag\u2019s FREE email newsletter\u00a0here<\/a>. And you can Support the Rag\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The current view of First Battery Armory from Columbus Avenue. Photos by Scott Etkin By Scott Etkin If…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[36686,23630,75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-121880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-extell-development","9":"tag-first-battery-armory","10":"tag-manhattan","11":"tag-manhattan-headlines","12":"tag-manhattan-news","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}