Landmarks Preservation Commission August 1, 1989; Designation List 219 LP-1670 FIRST BATTERY ARMORY (Later the 102nd Medical Battalion Armory), 56 West 66th Street, Borough of Manhattan. Built 1900-1903; architect, Horgan & Slattery. Landmark Site: Borough of Manhattan Tax Map Block 1118, Lot 52. On July 12, 1988, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on the proposed designation as a Landmark of the the 102nd Medical Battalion Armory and the proposed designation of the related Landmark Site (Item No. 8). The hearing had been duly advertised in accordance with the provisions of law. Seventeen witnesses, including representatives of the owner, spoke in favor of designation and one took no position. DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS Summary Built in 1900-1903, the First Battery Armory (later the 102nd Medical Battalion Armory) was one of the few remaining examples of an American building type largely developed in New York City. It was the seventh of ten armories built by the New York city Armory Board as part of a general campaign to control rioting workers in industrial cities. The armory was designed by the firm of Horgan & Slattery when it held a virtual monopoly on city architectural and construction work gained through a relationship with the Tammany administration of Mayor Robert Van Wyck. The First Battery, a mounted field artillery unit established in 1867, was a well-regarded volunteer unit of the National Guard of the State of New York. Primarily German American in its membership, it had its own distinctive traditions that extended to its uniforms and its armory. When the leadership of the First Battery changed in 1907 from Louis Wendel to Major John F. O'Ryan, a leader in the reform of the National Guard, the changes represented the transformation of the National Guard in that era from a group largely concerned with social affairs to a professional military organization and from an urban police force to an adjunct of the army. Like most New York Citi armories, six of which are designated New York City landmarks, the First Battery Armory consists of a headhouse of conventional construction and a rear drillroom with a large interior space created by steel trusses; a symmetrical composition of the headhouse with a central tower and end pavilions; and ornamentation derived largely from medieval sources. The facade of the First Battery Armory is a lively, brightly colored composition of turrets, crenelations, sally ports, machicolations, and other castle-like features, some of which are 1

functional and others purely decorative. From 1913 to about 1973 the Armory was occupied by the 102nd Medical Battalion and its predecessors. And since 1976 it has been used as a television studio by Capital Cities/ABC. The National Guard and the First Battery The First Battery Armory was built for a unit of the National Guard of the State of New York (N.G.S.N.Y.), long the largest and most active state militia in the country. In order to maintain state power against that of the federal government, the states were first required under the 1792 "militia law", to form militia uni ts; all able-bodied men were ordered to serve. Officers were elected by the men of their units and the units governed themselves, setting their own widely varying standards of military training. The citizen militia provided a large portion of the fighting forces in all of America's wars through the 19th century. But beginning with the Civil War (during which it came to be called the National Guard), the standing army grew and the readiness of the mil itia for modern warfare was called into question. The composition of American society was changing with immigration and industrialization, which in turn affected the role of the National Guard. Particularly after the riots associated with the nationwide railroad strike in 1877, the National Guard was redirected toward the control of urban rioters. In 1900 when plans were filed for its armory, the First Bat

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