Castle Williams

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Castle Williams on Governors Island
Land side with attached guard house in the throat
Castle Williams in the fall of 1996

Castle Williams is a nearly circular structure made of red sandstone on the west side of Governors Island in New York Harbor . It served first as a fortification , then as a military prison, barracks and multi-purpose building for the coast guard. Today it only serves tourist purposes.

It was purely an artillery plant with three floors of fire and was not set up for infantry defense. Designed and built it was from 1807 to 1811 by Lieutenant Colonel (dt .: Lieutenant Colonel ) Jonathan Williams, commander of the Corps of Engineers and the first director of the Military Academy at West Point . The fort was part of the inner harbor defense system, which included Fort Columbus (later renamed Fort Jay ), the South Battery on Governors Island, Castle Clinton at the tip of Manhattan, Fort Wood on Liberty Island , and Fort Gibson on Ellis Iceland belonged.

The naming was performed in honor of the builder on 24 November 1810 approval of the Minister of War (Secretary of War) on the orders of Colonel (dt .: Col. ) Henry Burbeck, garrison commander of New York ( "In future the Stone Tower on this Iceland will bear the name of CASTLE WILLIAMS, in honor of the commandant of the United States Corps of Engineers, who designed and erected it. ").

During the American Civil War , the fort was not involved in combat operations and was used as a prison camp for men and non-commissioned officers of the Confederate States Army , as a prison for deserters of the Union Army and also as barracks . After 1865 a military prison was set up in the building for lighter cases. At the same time, it still served as a barracks. After that, the facility began to deteriorate more and more until it was designated one of the ten military prisons of the United States Army in 1895 and extensive modernization measures were initiated. This included the installation of central heating and sanitary facilities. The latter was connected to a water pipe.

In the early years of the 20th century, the foreign minister and former war minister Elihu Root made a personal effort to preserve the fort, especially since Governors Island doubled its size between 1901 and 1912 through land reclamation and property speculators were already noticeable. The structure was converted into a model prison in 1903 and also received a power supply in 1904 when Governors Island was connected to the mains.

In the years 1912–1913 it was necessary to renew the valley wall. As a result, two magazine structures inside the fort were demolished and the material used to build a two-story guardhouse in the throat .

Castle Williams became an outpost (Atlantic Branch) of the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth in 1915 . In 1916 the sanitary facilities were expanded and in 1930 the entire heating, sanitary and electricity system was renovated. The security standards were increased, high security cells were built into various casemates on the second and third floors.

Extensive renovation work between 1947 and 1948 gave the building its current appearance. The wooden perimeters were replaced by steel-reinforced concrete galleries and the iron stairs were replaced by brick stairs. Partitions made of concrete and stone walls were raised in the casemates. The wooden cell doors were exchanged for steel ones.

After the US Army gave up the military property on Governors Island in 1966, Castle Williams was also deactivated and handed over to the United States Coast Guard . This used the fort as a club and community center with a daycare center, rooms for scouts , craft rooms, a photo studio and a museum. On July 31, 1972, the fort was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a monument . After the fort had been used as a warehouse for a few years, it was given up in 1997. In 2003 the property and neighboring Fort Jay were handed over by the Coast Guard to the National Park Service , which manages it as part of the Governors Island National Monument .

Literature

  • Barbara A. Yocum: Castle Williams. Historic structure report. Governors Island National Monument. National Parks of New York Harbor, New York, New York . National Park Service, Lowell MA 2005.

Web links (source material)

Commons : Castle Williams  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Castle Williams in the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed August 19, 2019.
  2. ^ Permalink The Library of Congress .
  3. ↑ a b Permalink The Library of Congress , possibly outdated. - Retrieved on November 21, 2010 without success.

Coordinates: 40 ° 42 ′  N , 74 ° 1 ′  W