Building 204, Fort Jay

204 Andes Road | also 204 Governors Island, 140 Carder Road | Governors Island | built 1900

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.

1796
Earlier on the site, an earthen Fort Jay is finished by 1796 with one barrack for its garrison
Building 204 stands inside the later Fort Columbus, on high ground that Continental troops first entrenched in 1775-76. Funded in 1794, the works were finished by 1796 as an earthen fort with two batteries partly faced in brick, a big powder magazine, two air furnaces and a single barrack for the garrison. Tradition says it was christened Fort Jay in 1798 after New York's governor at the time, John Jay.
Source: National Park Service
1834
The Army adds a small triangular building to Fort Columbus's new barracks quadrangle
By the late 1820s the fort's old barracks from the 1790s have badly deteriorated. Between 1834 and 1836 four new barracks go up inside the quadrangle to house the garrison, and a small triangular structure of one story, set on a granite and sandstone foundation, is built alongside them. The barracks have been in continuous use since, as housing for officers or enlisted men and later for Coast Guard families.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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