New York Harbor School
550 Short Avenue | also 550 Governors Island, 140 Carder Road | Governors Island | built 1900
Open on the map12 entries
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.
- 1940
The Army builds Building 550 as First Army barracks for 375 people
Building 550 was finished in 1940 as barracks for the First Army, sized to hold 375 people. It was one of a pair with Building 333, and the two were set on either side of Building 400. Both belonged to a 1928 plan to beautify Governors Island drawn up by McKim, Mead & White, but money for the work did not come through until the late 1930s, so construction was delayed.
“Building 550 was constructed in 1940 as one of a pair with Building 333 as barracks for the First Army, designed to house 375 people.”
- 1940
Building 550 is a three-story neo-Georgian brick barracks drawn up by the Quartermaster General's office
The Construction Division of the Office of the Quartermaster General designed Building 550 in a neo-Georgian manner, and it was built between 1938 and 1940. Its three stories form a U, with the long side facing Short Avenue and wings reaching toward Clayton Road and Division Road. The walls are red brick over a reinforced-concrete structure, banded by a limestone course above the first floor, and the Short Avenue entrance has a porch of stone columns and pilasters.
“…arranged in a U-shaped plan with the long section fronting Short Avenue and the projecting wings fronting Clayton Road and Division Road.”
- 1943
The First Army leaves for England and Building 550 passes to the Second Service Command
When the First Army moved its headquarters from Governors Island to Bristol, England, in 1943, the barracks it had occupied for only a few years changed hands. The Second Service Command took the building over and converted part of it into office space.
- 1966
The Coast Guard converts Building 550 into training classrooms
In 1966, about a quarter century after the Army built it, the Coast Guard remodeled Building 550 into classrooms for training purposes. The barracks had already passed from the First Army to the Second Service Command and been partly turned into offices.
“In 1966 the Coast Guard converted the building to classrooms for training purposes.”
- 1994
Building 550 becomes the Governors Island base clinic
Around 1994 the building was converted again, this time to serve as the base clinic, which had previously been housed in Building 515. The work added a freestanding steel entrance structure on the courtyard side and a glass-enclosed bay for ambulances at the Division Road end.
- 2003
The Urban Assembly and partners found the New York Harbor School
The Urban Assembly, the South Street Seaport Museum, and the Waterkeeper Alliance jointly found the New York Harbor School in 2003, with Nathan Dudley as its first principal. The school opens inside Brooklyn's Bushwick campus, built around a curriculum centered on New York Harbor, years before it gains a waterfront home of its own on Governors Island.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2006
Governors Island's overseers pick the Harbor School over NYU and developers as a tenant
In November 2006 the authority overseeing Governors Island named the Harbor School the winner among a final 25 proposals. Rivals included New York University and big-name real estate developers, all offering to pay the city and state. Founder Murray Fisher instead asked for $34 million to build a school, and the city and state pledged the money. The school was to become the first non-military tenant of the island's red-brick buildings.
Source: dailyreporter.com
- 2010
The New York Harbor School moves into a renovated Army barracks
Founded in 2003 in shared space in Bushwick, Brooklyn, the maritime high school moved to Governors Island and opened in Building 550 on September 8, 2010. The building had opened in 1938 as Army barracks and was renovated for $34 million. The school's roughly 400 students, many from low-income Brooklyn families, study the harbor and learn sailing, rowing and swimming.
Source: dnainfo.com
- 2010
About 120 summer students get their first taste of the Harbor School's island campus
In summer 2010 about 120 students came to the island for summer classes, a first look at the school's new home. One student's 45-minute commute began on the L train in Brooklyn and ended on a ferry. On Pier 101, boating-class students zipped on life vests and climbed into long rowboats, and founding principal Nate Dudley said the school sails, rows, swims, builds boats and does water-quality testing and scuba.
Source: wnyc.org
- 2010
Officials cut a fishnet instead of a ribbon to open the Harbor School's $34 million home
On October 4, 2010, with rain falling, officials from the city, state and federal governments snipped a fishnet instead of a ribbon to open the school's new home in a former Army barracks. Mayor Michael Bloomberg joked that he had arranged the weather to suit the maritime theme, and told the students the harbor was now their laboratory. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said he saw the school as a national model.
Source: dnainfo.com
- 2011
The barracks conversion earns a Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award
The conversion of Building 550 into the Harbor School won a Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award in 2011, according to its architects, Ciardullo A&E. Because the building lies in the historic district, changes needed approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the local Community Board. The design includes a marine science classroom with equipment for raising lobsters, oysters and tilapia, and a shop where a harbor sloop would be built.
Source: ciardullo.com
- 2022
Mayor Adams announces a plan to double the Harbor School's footprint from two buildings to four
On August 16, 2022, Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan to grow the school from two buildings to four. The School Construction Authority would renovate Building 555, a landmark built in 1938 as Army family housing, for 32,000 square feet of classrooms, and build a facility with a competition-sized pool, gymnasium and lab space. It would be the first new construction in a Governors Island development zone since the island passed to local control.
“Doubling the school’s footprint from two to four buildings — including one that will be newly constructed…”
Source: nyc.gov
Further reading
- New York Harbor SchoolWikipedia
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