Pershing Hall

125 Carder Road | also 125 Governors Island, 140 Carder Road | Governors Island | built 1900

Open on the map5 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1839

    An earlier building on the site: the New York Arsenal's second officers' quarters and storehouse stand here

    Long before the First Army headquarters, this hilltop held the second pair of buildings put up for the New York Arsenal in the 1830s: an officers' quarters and an ordnance storehouse. The quarters lasted into the twentieth century. The matching storehouse was torn down in 1883 and a third set of officers' quarters went up in 1884. Building 125 now stands on the spot.

    Source: cdn.loc.gov

  2. 1934

    Lorimer Rich designs a Georgian Revival headquarters for the Second Corps Area on Governors Island

    Architect Lorimer Rich, a veteran of McKim, Mead and White who was later awarded the design of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, designed the red-brick headquarters for Major General Dennis E. Nolan's Second Corps Area. The P.J. Murphy Company of Jamaica, Long Island, built it from plans dated January 12, 1934, with a proposed budget of $200,000 from Public Works funds. Wings at each end were meant to follow later, turning the plan into a U.

    “After leaving the firm, he was awarded the design of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the National Cemetery at Arlington…”

    Source: cdn.loc.gov

  3. 1938

    T. Loftin Johnson paints Federal Art Project murals of American military history inside the headquarters

    In 1938 the painter T. Loftin Johnson covered walls of the building with murals for the Federal Art Project, showing episodes of the nation's wars from the Revolution through World War I. Cpl. F.A. Brofos of the 800th Military Police Company restored them in 1952. Johnson's other work includes a West Point mural of famous battles and commanders in the Cadet Mess.

    “…murals painted by T. Loftin Johnson as part of the Federal Art Project in 1938. These depict scenes from American military history…”

    Source: cdn.loc.gov

  4. 1946

    June

    The First Army returns to its Governors Island headquarters after fighting in Europe

    The building served as First Army headquarters until October 1943, when the army left for Bristol, England; in the war it landed at Normandy, reached Paris first and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. The army came back in June 1946 and stayed until 1966, when the First and Second Armies merged. Since then the building has housed the Coast Guard's Third District headquarters.

    Source: cdn.loc.gov

  5. 1954

    August 10

    The First Army headquarters is dedicated as Pershing Hall for General John J. Pershing

    On August 10, 1954, the Army named Building 125 Pershing Hall for John J. Pershing, the General of the Armies. Pershing had been the first commander of the U.S. Army, in 1918.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

All 81 buildings with stories in Governors Island