The Neighborhood Fortress: 23rd Regiment Armory

23rd Regiment Armory in 1922 looks very much the same today.

The move happened this past weekend. I've left the apartment that I called home for close to five years. This week has been crazy with painting, moving, and working, working, working! I've had little time to do anything these days and with the lack of internet access I'm currently experiencing, keeping up with IamDavidj is very difficult. However, things will soon change.

My recent move has positioned me in a new part of Brooklyn that I've seldom frequented in the past. I'm situated on the boarder of Bed Stuy and Crown Heights,  just between Fulton and Atlantic Ave. On a surprisingly quite street lined with brownstones. From my bedroom window I can see the tower of a red pressed brick castle. Strange enough a few blocks away stands a massive brick fortress. That tower I can see from my window reaches 136 feet into the air and is the tallest of 8 similarly styled structures attached to the 23rd Regiment Armory.

Postcards of the 23rd Regiment Armory, once a source of great pride for Crown Heights residents.

The building located on Bedford Avenue and Atlantic took four years to completed starting construction in 1891. The building is one of eight armories constructed in Brooklyn before 1900. The 23rd Armory was noted to be "the product of a considerable expenditure on the part of the state and country." (New York Tribune, July 18, 1897) The interior was so grandly furnished and decorated that during the during the Spanish American War (1898) the 23 regiment was accused of not being call to the front line because they all wished to stay home in the company rooms, which were known for being the nicest in the state.

The grandeur of such a structure would leave one to believe that this building that once house soldiers doing drill calls and artillery at war time was now a grand museum. Or at least a public building offering Crown Heights residents an opportunity to peeking into the building designed by architects Haisted Fowler and William C. Hough.

But you would have thought wrong if any of these thoughts crossed your mind. The 23rd Regiment Armory, a "handsome and Imposing Romanesque Rival armory" is the currently a shelter and assessment center for homeless men ( Landmarks Preservation Commission, March 8, 1977). Sadly the over-the-top grandeur of this landmarked structured is marred by the often frightening homeless men of New York. It's quite ironic that the Armory which once housed American citizens who fought in the Spanish American War, World War I, and World War II now takes in hundreds of homeless men for addiction and mentally and physically wellness assessment. One can only hope that things will soon change, for the men of the Armory and the Armory itself.