page_title: Kingsbridge Armory
section_title: Use
hierarchical_section_title: Kingsbridge Armory / History / Use
caption_attribution_description: English: Kingsbridge Armory from Kingsbridge Road station on 4 subway line
context_page_description: The Kingsbridge Armory, also known as the Eighth Regiment Armory, is located on West Kingsbridge Road in the New York City borough of the Bronx. It was built in the 1910s, from a design by the firm of then-state architect Lewis Pilcher to house the New York National Guard's Eighth Coast Defense Command, a regiment-sized unit which relocated from Manhattan in 1917. It is possibly the largest armory in the world.
  In addition to its military function, it has been used over the years for exhibitions, boxing matches, and a film set. After World War II the city offered it to the United Nations as a temporary meeting place. In 1974 it was designated a city landmark, and eight years later it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its military use ended and it was turned over to city management in 1996. Since then it has remained vacant as various proposals to redevelop it have failed. One such proposal, by the administration of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, turned into a dispute over living wage policies. In 2013, a new plan to redevelop it as the world's largest indoor ice center was announced, called the Kingsbridge National Ice Center.
context_section_description: During World War II the armory was active in the war effort. Herbert Lehman, a former governor and U.S. Senator, ceremonially reviewed 10,000 troops there at a 1942 event. It was one of the few registration sites in the city for immigrants from enemy nations. After the war the city offered it to the United Nations General Assembly as a temporary meeting place until the main UN building was finished.
  In 1957 the two rear buildings were constructed. It was designated a city landmark in 1974. At that time the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission called it "an outstanding example of military architecture." Over the years following, the main armory building was neglected, and by the 1990s, the Guard units who called it home were running most of their operations from the annex buildings on West 195th.
  For a period in the 1980s it was used as a homeless shelter. In 1994, one of the community school districts proposed that new schools be built on the site. The state Division of Military and Naval Affairs transferred title to the armory and its property to New York City two years later, whereupon the city began trying to find a new location for two of the three units that trained at the armory.
caption: East profile of armory from Kingsbridge Road subway station
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