Fort Jay Barracks (Building 206)
206 Governors Island | also 206 Andes Road, 140 Carder Road | Governors Island | built 1900
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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.
- 1809
Earlier on this site, the rebuilt Fort Columbus gets brick barracks for 230 men
Reconstruction of Fort Jay, renamed Fort Columbus, ran from July 1806 to December 1809, and the National Park Service says the finished fort held brick barracks for 230 men. In the 1830s four new barracks with flanking triangular structures replaced those four brick barracks, and Building 206 is one of the four. This entry describes the earlier barracks on the site, not the current building.
“…the four existing brick barracks were replaced by four new barracks with flanking triangular structures and outdoor courtyards…”
Source: National Park Service
- 1834
The Army builds Building 206, a Greek Revival barracks, inside the Fort Columbus quadrangle
Building 206 went up in 1834-36 as one of four barracks around the central court of Fort Columbus. Its brick walls stand on a granite and sandstone base, with two-story brownstone Doric columns holding up the porch. In the 1860s the Army added continuous iron balconies at the second story and absorbed a small triangular outbuilding at the east end, which is why that end wall is angled.
- 1921
The Army reconfigures the Fort Jay barracks as officers' apartments
In 1921-22 the Army reworked the four quadrangle barracks, Building 206 among them, as officers' apartments, and it reconfigured them again in the 1930s. The buildings had been altered before: flat roofs gave way to hipped roofs in 1855-57, and five of the flanking triangular outbuildings were added to the barracks in the 1860s and 1898-99.
Source: National Park Service
- 1935
A Works Progress Administration project turns each company barracks into four townhouse apartments
A WPA project of the 1930s converted the barracks inside Fort Jay into family housing, dividing each company barracks into four townhouse-style apartments for junior officers. Eight two-car garages were built inside the fort behind the barracks so residents could keep their cars within the walls. Building 206 is one of the four barracks that took part in this conversion.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1966
The Coast Guard remodels the Fort Jay barracks and keeps officers housed there until 1996
After the Coast Guard took over Governors Island from the Army in 1966, it kept Fort Jay as officer housing until it closed its base there in September 1996. Remodeling gave the barracks modern kitchens and bathrooms, new heating and electrical systems, and storm windows and doors.
“…remodeling of the barracks with new kitchens, bathrooms, heating and electrical systems, and storm windows and doors; 1966 USCG assumed control, closed base September 1996…”
Source: National Park Service
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