Fort Columbus Barracks (Building 214)

214 Governors Island | also 214 Andes Road, 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.

1834
A Greek Revival barracks of brick and brownstone columns rises on the Fort Columbus quadrangle
Building 214 was built in 1834-36 as one of four two-story barracks inside the fort's quadrangle, in Flemish-bond brick with Doric columns of brownstone. Iron balconies were added to the second story in the 1860s. In 1898 a small triangular structure at its east end was folded into the main building, which is why that end wall is angled.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1861
Captured Confederate officers are held in the north barracks of Fort Columbus
Early in the Civil War, captured Confederate officers were kept in the north barracks of Fort Columbus while they waited to be sent on to Union prison camps such as Johnson's Island in Ohio, Fort Delaware and Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. Building 214 stands on the quadrangle's north side, where a vaulted passage under it leads to the powder magazine in the north ravelin. The fort and nearby Castle Williams also served as a temporary camp and hospital for Confederate prisoners.
“In the early years of the Civil War, the north barracks were used to hold Confederate officers taken as prisoners of war pending transfer…”
Source: Wikipedia

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