Schenectady Armory The Schenectady Armory is located on Washington Street in the city of the same name in the U . S . state of New York . It is a brown brick building dating to 1936 . New York ' s state architect at that time , William Haugaard , used the Art Deco architectural style for the exterior of the building and the Tudorbethan mode for the interior . The armory remains virtually intact today . It was home to two units of the New York Army National Guard until it was closed in 2008 . In 1995 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places . Building . The armory is on a one - way extension of Washington Street just north of its interchange with I - Interstate 890 and just south of Schenectady County Community College ' s Elston Hall opposite , the former Hotel Van Curler . To its east is Fuller Street and some industrial buildings . Exterior . It is on a lot with one other building , a modern garage not considered a contributing resource to the Register listing . The armory itself is a T - shaped building of brick on a steel frame structural system . The main block is three and a half stories in height with slightly asymmetrical two - story side wings . It has a projecting entrance pavilion on the west ( front ) elevation , with a segmented arch over its sally port , filled with two heavy oak doors with medieval - inspired hardware . The facade is otherwise embellished with details representing both the Art Deco and Tudorbethan styles . Projecting perpendicularly to the main administration building on the east is the drill shed , a gable - roofed wing with its windows spaced by buttresses with stone caps . The brick - faced concrete block garage is to the southeast . Interior . The main entrance vestibule is a two - story octagonal space with concrete wainscoting painted to look like red sandstone . Doors leading to offices off the entrance have half - sidelights and scored concrete surrounds . Corridors on the first story are cross - vault ed , with those on the second story using barrel vault s . Both have concrete ceilings and brick walls . At the end of the north wing ' s first story , the company meeting room , later converted into a bar and dining room , features paneled wainscoting , stucco ed concrete walls and a concrete ceiling encasing the support beams . The offices elsewhere in the wing have generally been subdivided and modernized , although the second - story corridor ' s barrel vault , accentuated by spandrel s supported by brick piers , is intact . In the drill shed , the ceiling is wainscoted , with steel truss es , exposed brick walls and an intact balcony at the west end . The original hardwood flooring has been covered with wooden tiles . History . Schenectady ' s first armory was built in 1868 to serve two local units , the Washington Continentals and the Citizens ' Corps . The former , formed in 1839 , had first served in the Mexican War . It was broken up during the recent Civil War but reformed afterwards . The Citizens ' Corps was not formally organized until 1873 . It joined the New York National Guard in 1880 , becoming the 36th Separate Company . Their armory was built with a $ 30 , 000 ( $ in contemporary dollars ) appropriation from the state obtained by newly elected assemblyman Robert Furman . A three - member commission including Furman chose the hill in Crescent Park overlooking the city as the site for a three - story red brick building with a polychrome slate roof . Records show an " 83rd Regiment " drilling in the armory until it disbanded in 1874 . It may have become the 36th and 37th Separate Companies . In 1890 , sentiment began to grow to build a new armory . State architect Isaac Perry ' s new building was completed and built on the same site in 1898 , just in time for the Spanish - American War . It was well - received locally and continued to serve the local Guard units as they prepared and mustered for World War I , where they were designated as the 105th Infantry of the American Expeditionary Force , a name that remained associated with Schenectady for many years . After the war , as many as five separate companies were using the armory , and throughout the 1920s they began lobbying for another new armory . The state finally began construction of the current building in 1936 . Unlike other armories built in New York during the Great Depression , Schenectady ' s was located in the core of the city , near the hotel , the General Electric plant a quarter - mile ( 400 m ) away , and businesses that had flocked to Erie Boulevard , the recently filled former route of the Erie Canal . The old armory in Crescent Park was demolished in 1946 . The armory continued to serve local military needs through World War II , the Korean War and the early years of the Cold War . In the early 1960s it was isolated in the neighborhood when I - 890 was built . The hotel went bankrupt but was quickly reused as Schenectady County Community College ' s Elston Hall . By the 21st century the armory had again grown outdated , and the state ' s Division of Military and Naval Affairs closed it down on November 10 , 2008 , to save heating costs . College sporting events and other gatherings that had been held in the armory were likewise suspended . The 206th Military Police Company , which had been based there , moved to a new facility in Latham , and the other tenant , the 501st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Battalion , moved to the new Scotia Armed Forces Reserve Center at the Schenectady County Airport . The state sold the armory at auction in July 2012 for $ 260 , 000 .