69th Regiment Armory

History and architecture

The Sixty-Ninth Regiment Armory occupies much of the block bounded by 25th and 26th Streets and Lexington and Park Avenues. Like all of the armories built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Sixty-Ninth is a highly specialized structure built to serve as a training and marshaling center for the National Guard. Designed by noted architects Hunt & Hunt in 1904-06, the building consists of the two standard elements of armory design: an administration building fronting on Lexington Avenue and a vast drill shed rising behind.

Earlier armories had been designed in medieval styles, making use of fortress imagery. The Sixty-Ninth Regiment Armory, however, is recognized as the first of this building type to reject the medieval fortress prototype, employing instead a classically inspired design, still military in aspect, that is thoroughly expressive of its function. The armory is notable as the home of "The Fighting 69th," New York City's only official "Irish Regiment." It achieved further renown as the site of the legendary "Armory Show" of 1913 which brought national attention to the newest art forms of modern European and American artists.

New York City Armories

Following the Civil War, an increase in enrollment in the militia and the development of new and heavier military equipment led the State of New York to require by law that each county provide suitable armories for its volunteer regiments. By 1900, New York City held the foremost position in the organized funding and erection of armories through the work of the Armory Board of the City of New York.

Created in 1884 to support state-wide public defense efforts, the board acted quickly to improve the city's then deficient facilities, for the training of the militia and the storage of arms. Prior to 1884 only one of Manhattan's eight regiments had its own armory headquarters.

Other National Guard units met and drilled in public markets, city arsenals, or rented loft space until funds from armory bonds were appropriated by the new board for the erection of suitable and permanent quarters for each of the city's regiments.

Stylistically, the armories that began to dot the grid of Manhattan in the late nineteenth century were modeled after the medieval fortress-like Seventh Regiment Armory of 1880 (a designated New York City Landmark located at 643 Park Avenue). The Sixty-Ninth Regiment Armory, completed in 1906, was the first to reject the picturesque medieval prototype. The building's internal organization is not hidden behind turrets, towers and crenellated parapets that marked earlier armories but is clearly expressed on the exterior.

While post-1906 armories erected in other boroughs and in other cities continued to incorporate medievalisms in their design, the three armories built in Manhattan after 1906 were, like the Sixty-Ninth, all of modern inspiration.

Of the thirteen regimental armories built in Manhattan to date, seven still stand; only five still function as armories. The red brick armory at 68 Lexington Avenue continues today to serve its original function as the home of the Sixth-Ninth Regiment of New York.