What if I told you, Quarters D has witnessed centuries of change? New York City has a long-standing relationship with the military. The idea of an army base in the heart of New York City might seem unusual. However, it is a reality with a rich history. It continues to play a significant role in the city’s landscape.
Let’s explore the presence of army bases in NYC. We will consider their historical significance. We will also explore their impact on the city’s identity. The construction of the Upper Barracks in October 1757 was pivotal.
New York authorized this massive building. It measured 420 feet long and 20 feet wide. It had two stories. The barracks could sleep 800 men. This dwarfed anything else in the city. It was longer than a city block. It was twice as large as Trinity Church. The Committee for the Building of the New Barracks situated it at the northern edge of New York. Carpenters set to work. The Upper Barracks claimed a privileged position. It placed the city under the watchful gaze of the British army.
The Upper Barracks wasn’t the city’s first military infrastructure. Since the 1620s, a massive fort protected New Amsterdam. When the English invaded in 1664, they found the fort’s barracks too small. They quartered in the homes of the inhabitants.
In the 1750s, the number of soldiers in New York swelled again. Britain clashed with France in the Seven Years’ War. New York passed a quartering act in December 1756. British troops were directed to barracks and public houses. The growing intensity of the war made many New Yorkers fearful. Troops would soon be forcibly quartered in their homes. So, they authorized the Upper Barracks.
New Yorkers understood the Upper Barracks as a means of protecting their homes from quartering. They welcomed British soldiers as defenders. However, they loathed quartering troops in their houses. Ideas of a “right to privacy” were still nascent in the 1750s. The Upper Barracks were an early attempt to accomplish this. The Upper Barracks emptied of British soldiers shortly after completion. By 1759, the main theater of the Seven Years’ War had shifted to Canada. The Common Council opened the Upper Barracks to charity.
In May 1766, Commander in Chief General Thomas Gage ordered the 46th Regiment of Foot into the Upper Barracks. For the next decade, the Upper Barracks was populated by British regulars. The Upper Barracks influenced the tenor of New York City. British soldiers could also be a source of law and order. The Upper Barracks made it possible for soldiers and civilians to share New York. It kept troops out of colonists’ homes. The barracks made troops palatable to the colonists.
The Upper Barracks was also a target for colonists. New Yorkers sought to resist taxation without representation by Parliament. The Upper Barracks retained its original purpose during the American Revolutionary War. American and British armies took control of the city. When the last British troops departed in November 1783, New Yorkers’ opinion of military quarters among civilians shifted. In January 1790, the city voted to demolish the buildings. The city repurposed the land for municipal purposes. Later, they erected City Hall and Tweed Courthouse on the site.
The Upper Barracks reminds us about the role of military geography in the invention of the American city. Temporary barracks rose again in New York during the Civil War. Soldiers have never again been a permanent part of the city. The lesson of New York’s Upper Barracks was that US citizens had the right to be protected from the military power of their own nation. New Yorkers imagined their city as a place of peace.