Like this one – why were they built in the middle of cities? They were built to prepare for … what? They wouldn’t build monuments like that just to store rifles and whatnot, would they? So what were they built for, and what are they used for now?
Defense and weapon stores for the National Guard. They were pretty much built before 1920. There might be a few exceptions.
So worries about invasion by foreign countries or another Civil War type disturbance. Most, if not all were built after the Civil War.
Yeah. Military stuff needs to be spread out to deal with problems wherever they develop. Guns, cannons, ammo and so on. Much, much easier to ship in troops and have them go to an armory and get equipment than it is to ship the equipment with them.
And the stores are important. Military engagements generally use a LOT more stuff than is ever planned for. In WWI the Germans had planned logistics to an incredibly detailed degree (like axles of train wheels over a given spot over time…nuts). They still fell far, far, far short of what the war was requiring (to be fair, everyone did).
Armories give some cushion to that.
Your link is to a Google Maps street view photo of the San Francisco Armory. Others explained that they were used as arsenals or armories for the National Guard. That particular building was used as a studio for BDSM porn videos by Kink .com from 2006-2018. Another notable armory is the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan, now used as an arts venue. There’s one on the campus of my alma mater that my school bought and converted to a gymnasium.
Some sources I’ve read (including Wikipedia) assert that armories – which were headquarters and arming depots for the National Guard – were built in the middle of cities against the need to quell another popular uprising in the wake of the Great Uprising/Railroad strike of 1877.
After the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, union organizers planned for their next battles while politicians and business leaders took steps to prevent a repetition of this chaos. Many states enacted conspiracy statutes. States formed new National Guard units and constructed armories in numerous industrial cities. For workers and employers alike, the strikes had shown the power of workers to challenge the status quo. A National Guard member in Pittsburgh, ordered to break the 1877 strike, pointed out that the workers were driven by “one spirit and one purpose among them – that they were justified in resorting to any means to break down the power of the corporations.”[
or
This current situation, however, is a far cry from their intended purpose: conceived out of fears of social upheaval and class warfare in the late nineteenth century, the armories originally served as bastions to defend against the working masses. These armories have thus transformed from fortresses meant to police their communities into centers serving their communities. The complex history of this transformation has witnessed the armories’ disparate functions such as sports coliseums, homeless shelters, and art galleries. Understanding this history is important to understanding the armories; however, it is also important in understanding New York City.
The Uprising of 1877, as Cartoon Historian Larry Gonick has pointed out, is “a scandalously unreported event in American history.”
My alma mater’s main building (well, it used to be) was the armory in Savannah, Georgia. Two big upright cannons flank the front door.
https://www.scad.edu/life/buildings-and-facilities/poetter-hall
The Armory in Bozeman MT is now a hotel. Stayed there last year. It’s pretty nice.
We were recently in Astoria, OR, and attended the No Kings rally, which started with speeches at the local armory, under the disco ball that is there because it is otherwise a roller rink, among other community center-type uses.
There are a lot of exceptions to that; many National Guard Armories were built during the Depression Era by the Works Progress Administration, and in general the National Guard (formally established by the Dick Act, also known as the Militia Act of 1903) was intended to form the backbone of a rapidly mobilize reserve force for response to both domestic civil unrest and foreign conflicts although that role was not really formalized until the National Defense Act of 1916. Post-WWI and demobilization of the Regular Army, much of the weapons and materiel produced was transferred to the National Guards of various states, necessitating the construction of armories for storage and maintenance. Armories are not just for storage; they also house the full-time administration of National Guard units and storage of records, and often provide other functions for civil disaster response.
It should be noted that in the 1920s and 1930s (and in the post-Reconstruction era in the 1870s and 1880s) there was a significant degree of civil unrest in many parts of the country, and a perceived need for a state-level force that could be deployed to bolster the relatively small ranks of state police/troopers (often just a small department in the pre-highway era) and local law enforcement. Having National Guard Armories in city centers made sense in terms of ability to equip and mobilize troops, although ironically the poorly secured facilities have also served as an easy mark for criminals and would-be revolutionaries to raid for weapons and ammunition from Bonnie and Clyde to the Black Panthers, and of course the infamous San Diego tank theft and rampage by Shawn Nelson in 1995.
Stranger
The Grays Armory in Cleveland is in the middle of the city. The group that built the building (the Grays) was founded in 1837 for local men to help the local police, and to be ready to fight if Canada’s 1837 rebellions crossed Lake Erie. For the next 60 years or so they were basically a local militia and did fight as a group in subsequent conflicts like the Spanish-American War and the Civil War. In 1903 official militias were legislated under, but members could join the National Guard. Since then it seems that the organization is more of a social club and museum.
As pointed out by Trudy on Mad Men during a crosstown cab ride in 1960: “The Armory! When are they going to tear that dinosaur down?”
Names such as the Dick Act should be required to have a citation, so here it is.
Then there is the Root Act which firmed up the Dick Act and gave it organizational structure and a firmer foundation of rules (see previous cite).
In that case, let’s not neglect the White House Building Activities Locked-out in Lapse Act (BALL) Act, which has nothing to do with the National Guard but you’d think they could find a way to attach a rider to it prohibiting deploying NG troops to cities to pick up trash or something.
Stranger
In my small hometown, the armory of course had ties to the state’s national guard. But I recall it being used more as a community center, a place to administer the first polio vaccines (sugar cubes!), where travelogues were shown, where the 4-H clubs had their fun nights, where the farm expos were held, where our junior high held its dances, etc. It was the heart of the city, in the heart of the city. In all those uses, I don’t remember NG stuff there, beyond some flags on the stage; they certainly had offices and did training and stored stuff there.
Considering how much the city used it versus the guard, I’m guessing it was also a way for the city fathers to get some sweet government funding for a much needed community space, while giving up some space for the guard. And of course the city wanted it in the center of the city.
It’s a good thing they didn’t tear it down, as from what I’ve heard, the Park Avenue Armory is a beautiful building (though I’ve never seen it in person). I’m sorry that I missed seeing the old Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan, though my excuse is that it was demolished before I was born.
Seattle’s armory, built in 1939, is now part of Seattle Center, the park which contains the Space Needle, Monorail terminus, several small museums, and much more.
https://www.seattlecenter.com/explore/attractions/armory
For the 1962 World’s Fair, the Armory was reconfigured into the first vertical shopping mall, called the Food Circus.
People are talking as if only one armory appeared in any city. That’s not my experience.
Rochester’s first armory was built in 1837. It was replaced in 1870. And that one replaced in 1907. However, a second armory was built in 1917, probably as a response to the war. Both 20th century armories became obsolete and decayed until they closed. A new armory for the modern National Guard was constructed in 1989 next to the airport and now houses a bunch of aviation-related units. The first three were located at the edges of what was then downtown and the fourth in a roomier area close to the city line in what was then open suburbia.
That’s a much longer span than suggested above. Maybe some building was connected to specific concerns, but they’ve been around forever, and started long before the Civil War.
Wiki has a page on New York City armories. Dozens are listed, dating back to 1808. I’m not seeing much of a pattern in their construction at a quick glance.
I suspect that was the primary impetus prior to the highways and modern cars. Nowadays it’s not a huge deal for someone to drive an hour or more to their drill location. But back in say.. 1920, that wasn’t something they could expect, so they put the armories where the soldiers were.
Another notable example in Manhattan is the Madison Avenue Armory, which was torn down - except for the facade along Madison Avenue. On the rest of the former site is the Hunter College High School campus, which was built in the 70s to resemble the armory.
The Fort York Armoury was built in 1933 in Toronto and is still active for training Canadian Forces Reserves.