About the Building

Georg C. Flint & Co. designed the entrance hall, the staircase and the corridors of the first and second floor in the Renaissance Revival style. They were completed in 1880. The central corridor on the ground floor stretches 203 feet long from end to end and is 22 feet high. A massive wrought iron and oak split staircase with original bronze torchères by Mitchell, Vance & Co. at the base is in the center. Other chandeliers in the halls date from 1897 when the building was electrified.

This and the Library next door are the only fully extant interiors by Louis C. Tiffany, Associated Artists in the world. They were executed in 1880 by Associated Artists, a cooperative firm of artists led by Tiffany working with Samuel Colman, Lockwood de Forest and Candace Wheeler with consulting architect Stanford White and artists George Yewell and Francis D. Millet. The Veterans Room has been described as “Greek, Moresque, and Celtic with a dash of the Egyptian, the Persian and the Japanese.” The room has been restored (March 2016), revealing the original colors and patterns.

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The second room at the Armory designed by Louis C. Tiffany, Associated Artists with Stanford White. This room is largely thought to be White’s design except for the windows and lighting fixtures by Tiffany. It features a magnificent basketweave barrel vault originally painted salmon color with silvered discs.

Designed by Pottier & Stymus in the Renaissance Revival style. The room’s original floral and geometric stencilwork at the wainscoting and frieze has recently been revealed.

Originally a ladies reception room, this is one of three rooms by Herter Brothers on the first floor, but the only one in which they did not design the woodwork (which was completed by Alexander Roux and Co.). The hearth is surrounded by Minton art tiles depicting Arthurian legends after Tennyson. The original Herter Brothers stencilwork was overpainted in the 20th century. The room was dedicated to Mary Divver, an orphan adopted by the Regiment in the 1850s.

This is one of the few surviving Herter Brothers interiors in the country, but one of five in the Armory. Herter Brothers was a top cabinet-making and interior design firm in the mid-19th century and designed the Fifth Avenue mansion of William H. Vanderbilt (now demolished). This room still retains the original painted surfaces and magnificent mahogany woodwork. Poor alterations in the 1930s and water infiltration in the early 1990s caused significant damage but the room was magnificently restored in 2013 and is now mainly used for recitals and intimate performances and lectures.

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Originally designed by Herter Brothers, this room was substantially redecorated in the 1930s and 40s, including extensive additions to the original French black walnut wainscoting and overpainting the original Pompeiian red walls and light blue ceiling. The room was further altered to accommodate two important portraits, one of George Washington by Rembrandt Peale and another of Marquis de Lafayette presented by the French government.

This room is fitted out in mahogany imported from Cuba and originally featured a pale blue ceiling and green walls. The current ceiling probably dates from 1897 when the building was electrified.

This room features original mahogany woodwork but the ceiling was substantially altered in 1906 including copper leaf ceiling panels and Tiffany Studios lighting fixtures.

This remarkably intact room features the original painted ceiling panels and woodwork along with magnificent mace-shaped lighting fixtures installed in 1897.

This room features elaborately carved mahogany woodwork surmounted by walls with terra cotta stencils over a copper field. The ceiling is a trompe l’oeil representation of a balustrade ringing a sky view with handpainted flowering vines. The room was restored in 2010 in accordance with designs by Herzog & de Meuron, removing layers of paint, plaster, and varnish covering these surfaces.

This room was radically altered in the 1890s by the addition of a gold-painted Tudor-style strapwork ceiling and new wallpaper. The 2010 restoration of this room, in accordance with designs by Herzog & de Meuron, was able to reestablish the original design intent despite a significant amount of loss and damage. Now, the oak’s warm hues glow below the exposed red and copper walls.

This Renaissance Revival-style room features oak woodwork, an original ceiling and original plaques with the names of members who died in the Civil War and World War I.

This is the only company room at the Armory that retains original Mitchell Vance & Co. polished steel gas lights. The original wall stencils and ceiling decoration have been covered but still exist under the 1894 redecoration.

This room features an original ceiling, though the original Japanesque wallpaper has been replaced. New light fixtures and wrought-iron grill work over the door and windows were installed at the turn of the century.

The 1880 room is largely gone today except for the cabinetry and clock. The Company members redecorated as early as 1890 in the then-popular Art Nouveau style, replacing the ceiling, the wall surfaces, the mantle, and installing an elaborate new balcony railing and torchère.

This is a rare surviving Queen Anne interior of 1880 by Company-member Sidney Stratton, a partner in McKim, Mead, & White. Except for a later mantelpiece and chandeliers of the 1920s, the room is largely intact. The original wall decoration has been uncovered, revealing the early metallic stencils. The names of Company K members, including Harrimans, Livingstons, Schermerhorns, and other prominent New York families, are inscribed on the oak and mahogany locker doors.