Castle Williams is a circular fortification of red sandstone on the northwest point of

Governors Island Governors Island is a island in New York Harbor, within the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located approximately south of Manhattan Island, and is separated from Brooklyn to the east by the Buttermilk ...

, part of a system of forts designed and constructed in the early 19th century to protect New York City from naval attack. It is a prominent landmark in

New York Harbor New York Harbor is a bay that covers all of the Upper Bay. It is at the mouth of the Hudson River near the East River tidal estuary on the East Coast of the United States. New York Harbor is generally synonymous with Upper New York Bay, ...

. Together with

Fort Jay Fort Jay is a coastal bastion fort and the name of a former United States Army post on Governors Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. Fort Jay is the oldest existing defensive structure on the island, and was named for John Jay, a m ...

, it is managed by the National Park Service as part of

Governors Island National Monument Governors Island National Monument is a unit of the List of national parks of the United States, United States national park system in New York City. It is located on of Governors Island, a island located off the southern tip of Manhattan Isl ...

Design and construction

Castle Williams was designed and erected between 1807 and 1811 under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel (later Colonel) Jonathan Williams, Chief Engineer of the Corps of Engineers and first Superintendent of the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

at West Point, New York. Williams was also a relative of

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin (April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and Political philosophy, political philosopher.#britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the m ...

. The castle was one component of a defensive system for the inner harbor that included Fort Columbus (later renamed

) and the South Battery on Governors Island;

Castle Clinton Castle Clinton (also known as Fort Clinton and Castle Garden) is a restored circular sandstone fort within Battery Park at the southern end of Manhattan in New York City, United States. Built from 1808 to 1811, it was the first American immig ...

at the southern tip of Manhattan, Fort Wood on

Liberty Island Liberty Island is a federally owned island in Upper New York Bay in the northeastern United States. Its most notable feature is the Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''), a large statue by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi that was ...

, and Fort Gibson on

Ellis Island Ellis Island is an island in New York Harbor, within the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York (state), New York. Owned by the U.S. government, Ellis Island was once the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United State ...

. Its pioneering design consisted of multiple levels of enclosed or fortified gun emplacements (

casemates A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armoured structure from which guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to antiquity, the term "casemate wall" mea ...

). It established a prototype for American coastal fortification design for the rest of the 19th century. The nearly circular fortification, 40 feet high and 210 feet in diameter, was constructed of sandstone walls 7 to 8 feet thick. Each of its four levels had 13 casemates (or pairs of barbette mounts on the fort's roof) that could hold 26 cannons of varied caliber. The four-tier arrangement was only duplicated in the US by Battery Weed at

Fort Wadsworth Fort Wadsworth is a former United States military installation on Staten Island in New York City, situated on The Narrows which divide New York Bay into Upper and Lower bays, a natural point for defense of the Upper Bay, Manhattan, and beyon ...

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

and Fort Point in San Francisco. However, at Castle Williams the third tier was intended as barracks and was not armed.Castle Williams at FortWiki.com
/ref> Before its completion, Colonel Henry Burbeck, commanding the defenses of New York City, issued an Army order on November 24, 1810, that named the castle for its designer and builder: "In future the Stone Tower on this Island (by the approbation of the Secretary of War) will bear the name of CASTLE WILLIAMS, in honor of the commandant of the United States Corps of Engineers, who designed and erected it."

Civil War

During the Civil War, the casemates of Castle Williams were used to house newly recruited Union troops, to serve as a barracks for the garrison's troops, and to imprison Confederate enlisted men and deserters from the Union Army. After 1865, it became a low-security

military prison A military prison is a prison operated by a military. Military prisons are used variously to house prisoners of war, unlawful combatants, those whose freedom is deemed a national security risk by the military or national authorities, and members o ...

that was also used as quarters for recruits and transient troops. By the 1880s, the castle, with its pitted and crumbling walls, was considered to be an aging and obsolete fortification. Improvements that included the installation of central heating and plumbing were most likely made in 1895 when Castle Williams was designated one of the U.S. Army's ten military prisons.

Prison

A commitment to preserve the forts of

was made in the early 20th century by Secretary of War

Elihu Root Elihu Root (; February 15, 1845February 7, 1937) was an American lawyer, Republican Party (United States), Republican politician, and statesman who served as the 41st United States Secretary of War under presidents William McKinley and Theodor ...

when landfill operations doubled the size of Governors Island between 1901 and 1912. The castle was fitted up as a model prison in 1903. It was most likely wired for electricity when it became available on the island in 1904. The angled gate walls were remodeled in 1912-13 to create a two-story guardhouse, using stones from two demolished magazines within the courtyard. Castle Williams became the Atlantic Branch of the

Fort Leavenworth Fort Leavenworth () is a United States Army installation located in Leavenworth County, Kansas, in the city of Leavenworth, Kansas, Leavenworth. Built in 1827, it is the second oldest active United States Army post west of Washington, D.C., an ...

Disciplinary Barracks in 1915, and the Eastern Branch of the

United States Disciplinary Barracks The United States Disciplinary Barracks (USDB), colloquially known as Leavenworth, is a military correctional facility located on Fort Leavenworth, a United States Army post in Kansas. It is one of two major prisons built on Fort Leavenwort ...

in 1921. Expansion of the plumbing system occurred in 1916, and complete renovation of the plumbing, central heating, and electrical systems was carried out in the 1930s. The floors and roof were also reinforced with steel in the 1930s, and steel grating and solitary confinement cells were installed in selected casemates of the second and third tiers. Extensive renovations were carried out in 1947-48 that gave the courtyard an industrial appearance. Concrete balconies enclosed with steel sashes replaced existing wooden galleries, and a three-story brick addition enclosed a steel stair. Concrete floors and brick partitions were installed in the casemates of the second tier, and steel security sashes and doors replaced those made of wood. Castle Williams ceased operations as a military prison in 1965 when the U.S. Army closed its post at Fort Jay and moved Headquarters,

First United States Army First Army is the largest OC/T organization in the U.S. Army, comprising two divisions, ten brigades, and more than 7,500 Soldiers. Its mission is to partner with the U.S. Army National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve to enable leaders and deli ...

from Governors Island to

Fort Meade Fort George G. Meade is a United States Army installation located in Maryland, that includes the Defense Information School, the Defense Media Activity, the United States military bands#Army Field Band, United States Army Field Band, and the head ...

, Maryland.

Closure and preservation

The U.S. Coast Guard arrived on Governors Island in 1966 and initially considered demolishing the castle. Instead it became a community center that provided a nursery, meeting rooms for scouts and clubs, a woodworking shop, art studios, a photography laboratory, and a museum. With the relocation of those civilian functions to new locations on the island in the mid-1970s, the castle ended its military career in a state of mild neglect as a storage facility and landscape shop for the Coast Guard. When the Governors Island Coast Guard base closed in 1997, the Coast Guard's Civil Engineering Unit Providence stabilized the building with temporary replacement windows, repointing, stone patching with Jahn Mortar and a new roof. In 2003, Castle Williams and the neighboring fortification, Fort Jay, were transferred to the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

under the administration of the

. It is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

References

Notes Bibliography *
"Castle Williams"
on

Historic American Buildings Survey The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

(HABS) * * *

External links