Park Avenue Armory Drill Hall and Interiors Guide

The Armory is one of America’s finest The Wade Thompson Drill Hall, approximately 200
by 300 feet and one of the largest unobstructed
landmarks, combining a rich social and interiors in New York City, is significant in the history
military history with an extraordinary of American engineering. It has the oldest extant
“balloon shed” (a barrel vaulted roof supported
ensemble of 19th-century period rooms. on visible arch trusses or ribs) in America, and is
The New York City Landmarks Comm- considered one of the first buildings in the United
States to incorporate this structural system. The
ission has described the Park Avenue room features eleven elliptical wrought iron arches,
Armory’s magnificent interiors, designed designed by consulting engineer Charles Macdonald
(president of the Delaware Bridge Company, a sub-
by masters of the American Aesthetic
sidiary of the important iron-and-steel-producing
Movement, as “the single most Cooper, Hewitt & Co.). Over the last 130 years, the
important collection of 19 th- soaring hall has hosted a range of epic events including
the inaugural May Music Festival in 1881 with an
century interiors to survive intact orchestra of 500 and a chorus of 1,200 conducted by
in one building,” while the expansive Leopold Damrosch; a full Wagner program conducted
by Theodore Thomas; a slew of fantastically themed balls
drill hall is considered an important (the Martian Ball, the Bovine Ball, the Commonwealth
monument in the history of American Society Ball attended by a young Queen Elizabeth II); the
lying-in-state of Louis Armstrong; Merce Cunningham’s
engineering. Completed in 1881, the “Events”; Luciano Pavarotti in a re-creation of Ancient
Armory served as a military, cultural and Rome inside the hall designed by Valentino; and most
recently, the extraordinary production of Zimmerman’s
social center for the Regiment as well as opera Die Soldaten, where the audience moved on rails
New York society of the Gilded Age. “through the music.”

The Drill Hall Section circa 1880.

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1 Drill Hall

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First Floor Reception Rooms

1. Hallways and Staircase: George C. Flint & Co. 5. Mary Divver Room (originally a ladies reception
designed the entrance hall, the staircase and the room): One of three rooms by Herter Brothers on
corridors of the first and second floor in the Renai- the first floor, but the only one in which they did not
ssance Revival style in 1880 . The central corridor design the woodwork (which was completed by
on the ground floor stretches 203 feet long from Alexander Roux and Co.). The hearth is surrounded
end to end and is 38 feet high. A massive wrought by Minton art tiles depicting Arthurian legends after
iron and oak split staircase with original bronze Tennyson. The original Herter Brothers stencilwork
torchère by Mitchell, Vance & Co. at the base is in was overpainted in the 20 th century. The room was
the center. Other chandeliers in the halls date from dedicated to Mary Divver, an orphan adopted by the
1897 when the building was electrified. Regiment in the 1850 s.
2. Veterans Room: This and the Library next door 6. Board of Officers Room: This is one of the few
are the only fully extant interiors by Louis C. Tiffany, surviving Herter Brothers interiors in the country,
Associated Artists in the world. They were designed but one of five in the Armory. Herter Brothers was
in 1880 by Associated Artists, a cooperative firm of a top cabinet-making and interior design firm in the
artists led by Tiffany working with Samuel Colman, Gilded Age and designed the Fifth Avenue mansion
Lockwood de Forest and Candace Wheeler with of William H. Vanderbilt (now demolished). This room
consulting architect Stanford White and artists George still retains the original painted ceiling and magnificent
Yewell and Francis D. Millet. The Veterans Room has mahogany woodwork although the walls were over-
been described as “Greek, Moresque, and Celtic with painted in a 1932 restoration. Water infiltration in the
a dash of the Egyptian, the Persian and the Japanese.” early 1990 s has caused significant damage but the
3. Field and Staff Room: Designed by Pottier & Stymus plaster has recently been stabilized.
in the Renaissance Revival style. The room’s original 7. Colonel’s Reception Room: Originally designed
floral and geometric stencilwork at the wainscoting by Herter Brothers, this room was substantially
and frieze has recently been revealed. redecorated in the 1930 s and 40 s, including
4. Library (now known as the Silver Room): The extensive additions to the original French black
second room at the Armory designed by Louis C. walnut wainscoting and overpainting the original
Tiffany, Associated Artists with Stanford White. This Pompeiian red walls and light blue ceiling. The room
room is largely thought to be White’s design except was further altered to accommodate two important
for the windows and lighting fixtures by Tiffany. It portraits, one of George Washington by Rembrant
features a magnificent basketweave barrel vault Peale and another of Colonel Lafayette presented
originally painted salmon color with silvered discs. by the French government.
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F
Drill Hall
E

C
B A

Second Floor Rooms

Company A by George C. Flint & Co.: This room Company G by Pottier & Stymus: This is the only
is fitted out in mahogany imported from Cuba and company room at the Armory that retains original
originally featured a pale blue ceiling and green walls. Mitchell Vance & Co. polished steel gas lights. The
The current ceiling probably dates from 1897 when original wall stencils and ceiling decoration have been
the building was electrified. covered but still exist under the 1894 redecoration.
Company B by Albert Wagner, architect: Co. B Company H by Herter Brothers: This room features
features original mahogany woodwork but the ceiling an original ceiling, though the original Japanesque
was substantially altered in 1906 including copper wallpaper has been replaced. New light fixtures
leaf ceiling panels and Tiffany Studios lighting fixtures. and wrought-iron grill work over the door and
Company C by Herter Brothers: This remarkably windows were installed at the turn of the century.
intact room features the original painted ceiling panels Company I by Pottier & Stymus: The 1880 room is
and woodwork along with magnificent mace-shaped largely gone today except for the cabinetry and clock.
lighting fixtures installed in 1897 . The Company members redecorated as early as 1890
Company D by Pottier & Stymus: Co. D features in the then-popular Art Nouveau style, replacing the
intricate carving on the mahogany lockers. In 1897 , ceiling, the wall surfaces, the mantle, and installing an
burlap with plaster ornament was installed over the elaborate new balcony railing and torchère.
original terra-cotta and blue stencils on the walls. Company K by Sidney Stratton: This is a rare surviving
Recent exposures beneath the layers have discovered Queen Anne interior of 1880 by Company-member
the original decoration largely intact. Sidney Stratton, a partner in McKim, Mead & White.
Company E by Pottier & Stymus: This room was Except for a later mantelpiece and chandeliers of the
radically altered in the 1890 s by the complete 1920 s, the room is largely intact. The original wall
replacement of the ceiling with a Tudor-style strapwork decoration has been uncovered, revealing the early
design and new wallpaper. However, the oak wood- metallic stencils. The names of Company K members,
work and the mantelpiece are largely unchanged. including Harrimans, Livingstons, Schermerhorns and
other prominent New York families, are inscribed on
Company F (original decorator unknown): This the oak and mahogany locker doors.
Renaissance Revival-style room features oak wood-
work, an original ceiling and original plaques with
the names of members who died in the Civil War.
 History of the Interiors
The Armory was built by the National Guard’s prestigious Seventh Regiment, mission of the armory

Park Avenue Armory is an

the first militia to respond to President Lincoln’s call for volunteers in 1861 .
arts institution dedicated to
Members of the “Seventh” included Van Rensselaers, Roosevelts, Stewarts, work that benefits from the
freedom of the building’s vast
Livingstons, and Harrimans, many of whom hired the decorators from drill hall and its constellation
the Armory for their own elaborate city mansions and country palaces of magnificent period rooms.
Filling a crucial niche in the
of the Gilded Age. Thus, the Reception Rooms on the first floor and the cultural landscape of New York
Company Rooms on the second floor were designed by the most prominent City, the Armory catalyzes
productions best realized in
designers and artists of the day including Louis Comfort Tiffany, Stanford a non-traditional setting. Park
White, Herter Brothers, Pottier & Stymus, and others. The Armory’s 55,000 Avenue Armory partners with
the City’s leading cultural
SF drill hall, reminiscent of the original Grand Central Terminal and the great institutions on unconventional
train stations of Europe, remains one of the largest unobstructed spaces of projects that introduce New
Yorkers to the Armory as an
its kind in New York. The administration building and drill hall, along with the alternative art space of scale.
majestic entrance, hallways and grand staircase, were designed by Regiment
veteran and architect Charles W. Clinton, later a partner of Clinton & Russell,
architects of the Apthorp Apartments and other early New York City
apartment buildings.

The Armory currently suffers from half a century of poor maintenance,

insensitive alterations, a lack of modern amenities and obsolete electrical and
plumbing systems dating back to the 1930 s. Since the Park Avenue Armory
took over in December 2006 , we have performed extensive cleaning,
completed initial restoration projects such as the main entry doors and
bronze gates, and implemented initial infrastructure projects like the drill hall
air conditioning. Basic infrastructure work will continue as the architects work
on the plans for the overall renovation and restoration of the Armory.

Press INFORMATION
For more information, contact
Resnicow Schroeder Associates:
Maggie Berget: (212) 671-5157
[email protected]
Julia Kirchhausen: (212) 671-5161
643 Park Avenue NY, NY 10065 T 212 616 3930 F 212 249 5518 www.armoryonpark.org [email protected]