Oct 31

Oct 31 On Halloween

Boo!

This Spring we were invited to conduct a tour of Governors island to review the existing exterior lighting. (More on that in a future post.) That day, the last ferry to the island left at 6pm, which gave us a full 2 hours before the sun fully set. With time to kill, our gracious host offered to give us a tour of some of the abandoned buildings (Most of them are abandoned but not all of them are safe). He asked if we would be interested, and our response was, well, “Hell yeah!”.

Governors Island is a 172-acre island in New York Harbor. Its use as a military base dates to 1776 during the Revolutionary War. Between 1783 and 1966, the island was an Army post serving as a training ground for troops and a defense point during war times. Until 1996 it served as a Coast Guard Base. After its decommissioning, it sat unused for nearly a decade until it was opened to the public in 2005.

The island has two military fortifications, Castle Williams, Fort Jay, and over 50 historic buildings. It currently operates as a seasonal public park and cultural center, but its goal is for adaptive reuse of the structures and to develop plans that will allow the island to be accessible all year long and all day and night (which is why we were there…at night).

Chapel of St. Cornelius with “The Cloud” by artist Jacob Hashimoto.

We were lucky enough to tour 5 abandoned structures with our client and one of the property managers. Though these are some of the most interesting buildings, we would have loved a peek into the hospital.

We heard a few ghost stories. We now know which buildings to avoid. But mostly it was interesting to learn about the history of the island through what was left behind.