The Schenectady Armory is located on Washington Avenue in the city of the same name in the U.S. state of New York. It is a brown brick building dating to 1936. New York's

state architect Many national governments and states have a public official titled the state architect or government architect. The specific duties and areas of responsibility of state architects vary, but they generally involve responsibility for the design and ...

at that time, William Haugaard, used the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

architectural style An architectural style is a classification of buildings (and nonbuilding structures) based on a set of characteristics and features, including overall appearance, arrangement of the components, method of construction, building materials used, for ...

for the exterior of the building and the

Tudorbethan Tudor Revival architecture, also known as mock Tudor in the UK, first manifested in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture, in rea ...

mode for the interior. The armory remains virtually intact today. It was home to two units of the

New York Army National Guard The New York Army National Guard is a component of the New York National Guard and the Army National Guard. Nationwide, the Army National Guard comprises approximately one half of the United States Army's available combat forces and approximate ...

until it was closed in 2008. In 1995 it was 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 ...

. It is currently operating as the Armory Studios NY

soundstage A sound stage (also written soundstage) is a large, soundproof structure, building or room with large doors and high ceilings, used for the production of theatrical film-making and television productions, usually located on a secured movie or te ...

and entertainment complex.

Building

The armory is on a one-way extension of Washington Avenue just north of its interchange with Interstate 890 and just south of

Schenectady County Community College SUNY Schenectady is a public community college in Schenectady, New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. It was established in 1967 in the Van Curler Hotel in Downtown Schenectady and has undergone multiple expansi ...

's Elston Hall opposite, the former Hotel Van Curler. To its east is Fuller Street and some industrial buildings.

Exterior

It is on a lot with one other building, a modern garage not considered a contributing resource to the Register listing. The armory itself is a T-shaped building of brick on a

steel frame Steel frame is a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The develop ...

structural system. The main block is three and a half stories in height with slightly asymmetrical two-story side wings. It has a projecting entrance

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings; * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

on the west (front) elevation, with a segmented arch over its

sally port A sallyport 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 and ...

, filled with two heavy oak doors with

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

-inspired hardware. The facade is otherwise embellished with details representing both the Art Deco and Tudorbethan styles. Projecting perpendicularly to the main administration building on the east is the drill shed, a

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

-roofed wing with its windows spaced by

buttresses A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act a ...

with stone caps. The brick-faced

concrete block A concrete block, also known as a cinder block in North American English, breeze block in British English, or concrete masonry unit (CMU), or by various other terms, is a standard-size rectangular block used in building construction. The u ...

garage is to the southeast.

Interior

The main entrance vestibule is a two-story octagonal space with

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

wainscoting Panelling (or paneling in the United States) is a millwork wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials. Panelling was developed in antiquity t ...

painted to look like red

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

. Doors leading to offices off the entrance have half-sidelights and scored concrete surrounds. Corridors on the first story are

cross-vault A groin vault or groined vault (also sometimes known as a double barrel vault or cross vault) is produced by the intersection at right angles of two barrel vaults. Honour, H. and J. Fleming, (2009) ''A World History of Art''. 7th edn. London: Lau ...

ed, with those on the second story using

barrel vault 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 ...

s. Both have concrete ceilings and brick walls. At the end of the north wing's first story, the company meeting room, later converted into a bar and dining room, features paneled wainscoting,

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

ed concrete walls and a concrete ceiling encasing the support beams. The offices elsewhere in the wing have generally been subdivided and modernized, although the second-story corridor's barrel vault, accentuated by

spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame, between the tops of two adjacent arches, or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fil ...

s supported by brick piers, is intact. In the drill shed, the ceiling is wainscoted, with steel

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as Beam (structure), beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so ...

es, exposed brick walls and an intact

balcony A balcony (from , "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. They are commonly found on multi-level houses, apartme ...

at the west end. The original hardwood flooring has been covered with wooden tiles.

History

Schenectady's first armory was built in 1868 to serve two local units, the Washington Continentals and the Citizens' Corps. The former, formed in 1839, had first served in the Mexican War. It was broken up during the recent

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

but reformed afterwards. The Citizens' Corps was not formally organized until 1873. It joined the

New York National Guard New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 19 ...

in 1880, becoming the 36th Separate

Company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

. Their armory was built with a $30,000 ($ in contemporary dollars) appropriation from the state obtained by newly elected assemblyman Robert Furman. A three-member commission including Furman chose the hill in Crescent Park overlooking the city as the site for a three-story red brick building with a

polychrome Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery, or sculpture in multiple colors. When looking at artworks and ...

slate roof. Records show an "83rd

Regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, military service, service, or administrative corps, specialisation. In Middle Ages, Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of l ...

" drilling in the armory until it disbanded in 1874. It may have become the 36th and 37th Separate Companies. In 1890, sentiment began to grow to build a new armory. State architect Isaac Perry's new building was completed and built on the same site in 1898, just in time for the

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

. It was well-received locally and continued to serve the local Guard units as they prepared and mustered for

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, where they were designated as the 105th Infantry of the

American Expeditionary Force The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) was a formation of the United States Armed Forces on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front during World War I, composed mostly of units from the United States Army, U.S. Army. The AEF was establis ...

, a name that remained associated with Schenectady for many years. After the war, as many as five separate companies were using the armory, and throughout the 1920s they began lobbying for another new armory. The state finally began construction of the current building in 1936. Unlike other armories built in New York during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, Schenectady's was located in the core of the city, near the hotel, the

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

plant a quarter-mile (400 m) away, and businesses that had flocked to Erie Boulevard, the recently filled former route of the

Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east–west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigability, navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, ...

. The old armory in Crescent Park was demolished in 1946. The armory continued to serve local military needs through

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

and the early years of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. In the early 1960s it was isolated in the neighborhood when I-890 was built. The hotel went

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the de ...

but was quickly reused as

's Elston Hall. By the 21st century the armory had again grown outdated, and the state's Division of Military and Naval Affairs closed it down on November 10, 2008, to save heating costs. College sporting events and other gatherings that had been held in the armory were likewise suspended. The 206th

Military Police Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. Not to be confused with civilian police, who are legally part of the civilian populace. In wartime operations, the military police may supp ...

Company, which had been based there, moved to a new facility in Latham, and the other tenant, the 501st

Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bomb disposal is an explosives engineering profession using the process by which hazardous explosive devices are disabled or otherwise rendered safe. ''Bomb disposal'' is an all-encompassing term to describe the separate, but interrelated fu ...

Battalion, moved to the new

Scotia Scotia is a Latin placename derived from ''Scoti'', a Latin name for the Gaels, first attested in the late 3rd century.Duffy, Seán. ''Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia''. Routledge, 2005. p. 698. The Romans referred to Ireland as "Scotia" aro ...

Armed Forces Reserve Center at the

Schenectady County Airport Schenectady County Airport is a county-owned, public-use airport located three nautical miles (6 km) north of the central business district of Schenectady, a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States. It is included in the N ...

. The state sold the armory at auction in July 2012 for $260,000. It was purchased by partners Ray and Jeff Legere. It now operates as Armory Studios NY, a

, catering and entertainment complex. Since 2025, it has been home to the New York Phoenix of

The Basketball League The Basketball League (TBL), formerly North America Premier Basketball (NAPB), is a professional basketball league. The league began operating in North America in 2018 with eight teams, and has since expanded. TBL's regular season runs from Feb ...

(TBL).

References

External links